Grant and the Sandman

Maybe you'd think that going to sleep comes easily to someone who is capable of this:


Or you'd assume that someone who can sleep through his mother digging chewed up pretzels out of his mouth would, oh I don't know, sleep soundly and easily.

I'm here to tell ya, you'd be wrong about those things. Grant, for all his wonderful and charming attributes, is a crappy sleeper. We probably missed some window of opportunity for teaching him to soothe himself to sleep as an infant, but for his entire life we've been rocking and cuddling him to sleep. And cuddling to sleep is a wonderful thing ... until the child weighs a lot and is super squirmy and takes forever to fall asleep. That's about where we are now.

To be fair, we've given him opportunities to "cry it out." But it seems that theory is as much against me as I am against it - poor little Grant has such a sensitive gag reflex that he throws up almost every time he cries hard for even two minutes. He has puked on an airplane, in the church nursery, and in the childcare room at the gym. And, of course, in his bedroom. Many, many times.

So, you can understand that up until now it's just been easier and more peaceful for all of us to comfort him all the way to sleep. But, thanks to Daddy's steel will and late-night efforts this week, we're working on sleep training (again). After several nights in a row of not taking him out of the crib when he cries, but shushing and patting is back, he's to the point where he can go back to sleep fairly quickly.

Maybe by next week we'll even be able to lay him down awake. Hey, a mom can dream. Or, I should say, if her kids would sleep then a mom could dream :)