Toddler Woes

Oh lord, I'm a zombie.  Aiden was sleeping pretty well for a long time.  He would take 1 nap a day, go to bed by 7 and get up at 5 or 6.  Fine with me!  Then it became wake up once at 11pm and sleep until 6.  Okay, still manageable.  I would just kind of wait up until 11 and then go to bed.

Not so lucky anymore.  The nap time was getting shorter, 45-1hr and he would ask for milk and a nap later in the day, so we let him.  Then he started waking up more at night so we cut out that extra nap again.  It didn't seem to help.  Let me give you an example of last night....

7pm:      went to bed great. 
11pm:    woke up
238am:  woke up
309am:  still hadn't gone back to sleep, so after playing quietly he now was yelling again
338am:  woke up again?  Or never really went to sleep?
406am:  woke up again.
6am:      Aiden woke up for the day - Kris got him and I slept 3 extra hours.

Now seriously - this is just not okay!  On a normal night I can predict that I will get up at 11, 230, and again at 5 which I try to convince him to sleep another hour.

It will be my luck this continues and I have a newborn who likes to wake up at 10, 130 and 4.  I will get NO sleep between the two of them!  As it is now I have a hard time falling back to sleep after waking up.  I have to pee "just one more time", then drink water, then try to get comfortable enough to try and fall asleep - then bam, he's waking up again within the hour!  It's killing me.  Last night I was awake from 230-4 because I could barely sleep in between his waking.

Okay, I have to admit something now, and I am ashamed of it.  We use a bottle still.  Yep, he's coming up on 22 months old and should have been gone long ago - but mommy uses it as a crutch.  He drinks his milk, then gives kisses and goes to sleep.  So my problem is probably all my own fault, he wants milk before he sleeps again during the night.  See - I dug my own darn grave!

We tried letting him cry it out a few times, and the time we were serious about it it worked for like a month.  He was sleeping from 7-7 without waking up!  Then that fell apart and now it's harder to let him cry it out because he doesn't cry and fuss - he freaks out and SCREAMS at the top of his lungs which wakes everyone up.  Living with family makes it a bit tough to let him cry.  So this is why I use the bottle still - to keep the peace.  Everyone gets sleep.  Except now he is starting to bite the nipples {he's been 100% rid of binkies for a month and half now for this reason} and so we really know it's time to get rid of the bottle!

He will drink milk during the day from a cup.  He will drink regular and strawberry milk.  He will even take it from a sippy half the time during the day if I try.  But at night time if I try a sippy to put him down he refuses it and cries.  I am dreading just taking the bottles away cold turkey. 

So to wrap up my woes - he's still using a bottle, he's not sleeping all that well at night, and I'm a zombie.  *sigh*

In other news, he's getting more smart everyday.  Multiple new words a day, he copies everything, he has figured out he can reach almost anything if he uses his chair.  He has peed on the potty a bit, even saying "sit potty" sometimes, but that's just practice for now still. 

In closing Kathy Lee Gifford just said on the Today show "I have not slept one night through since my kids were born 22 years ago"  - I feel like I will be just like that.