30 Extra Minutes of Sleep

In his short two years and four months of life, K has been a good sleeper for roughly four of those months. I'll spare you the gory details, but trust me it's been a rough ride.

Just before two, we moved him into his own room. This was trauma-free and a really good decision for us. The problem, however, was that without me in the same room, it seemed he didn't know when it was actually morning/time to wake up.

We don't have daylight savings time here, so it is bright as can be at roughly 4:30/5 during the spring and summer. Although technically morning, this is no time for me to be woken up.

Enter the best nightlight EVER.



You set nighttime mode, i.e. when you want the moon to be shining and morning mode, i.e. when you want the sun to be shining. Brilliant!! (In case you're wondering, I got it from www.thinkgeek.com.) I have the moon set for 8pm and the sun set for 7am.

The unfortunate bit is that occasionally, K wakes up before 7. And then he gets bored. And then he wants me to come play with him. Crap.

I would have just tossed some toys in his crib, but he uses his mattress as a floor routine mat during the night, rolling around and getting to all the corners as much as possible. This meant that I couldn't simply drop a bunch of his wooden trains in with him at night and wish him the best. I needed a way to corral the toys, yet make them accessible to him.

What's the solution? A gigantic pocket that ties to the end of his bed.



Each night, before bed, he carefully picks out all of his favorite trains and we put them in the pocket.



Every once in a while I hear him at about 6:30. He knows not to call for me, but I hear him playing with his trains and making up stories. These usually involve one of the trains getting stuck in a tunnel (under his blanket) and then calling out for help. Inevitably one of the kind train souls comes by to pull him out. Crisis averted.

Very occasionally, K seems to be so into playing trains, that I don't get the, "Mama, it's yellow! Play?" call until nearly 7:30. I'm pretty sure this is my best parenting idea to date.

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