My Son and Sleep, the Sequel

Good news!  After nearly four months of alternating between sleeping under his table and sleeping in a tent, my son CJ, appears to have finally transitioned back to his bed for sleeping. 

This is pretty huge considering that he has not even desired to stick a toe near that bed since early April.  Since then we have found him sleeping not just under the table or in his tent but even in the middle of his floor and completely comfortable, so he claims.

In the middle of his room and sound asleep.

Now, the reason he has given us for this move is kind of surprising: the tent is just too hot for sleeping. 

No kidding kid, its only 100 degrees outside at night where we live right now.  (Why I'm ready for winter here.)  It gets a tad stuffy in the house at times. 

So...great, our problems are solved, life as we know it is now perfect, right?! Yeah.  Not so much.  In the week since he has moved back to his bed, we have now developed new issues that are interfering with the parents getting some sleep. 

The latest in this saga is that although we are now sleeping in our bed, we are taking at minimum 60 minutes, usually more like 90 minutes, to fall asleep. And that is with bedtime pushed back until about 8:30 p.m.  Seriously, the kid is going to sleep when I am and still wide awake at 6 a.m. or sooner.  How is this possible?  In related news, I know two people who could use even 5 minutes alone without a kid awake.

CJ is also now refusing to sleep with the door closed.  Which means it must stay wide open all night (we tried closing it when we went to bed and a few nights of him screaming at 3 am rid us of that habit).  Which means any noise husband and I make after he goes to sleep travels right to him.  So now we've taken to whispering and tip-toeing.

CJ is using this door stays open thing as an excuse to wander around the upstairs, peruse the bookshelf in the hallway for some light bedtime reading, take another 4 trips to the potty, and sit at the top of the stairs to sneakily quietly listen to mommy and daddy.  That one backfired big time last night when husband asked me if I wanted some ice cream and all of a sudden there was crying and whining from the stairs that he wanted some ice cream too.  PLEASE, MOMMY, PLEASE!! Who knew he was even out of bed!!  Not us, that's for sure.

The only threat that seems to be working even mildly is that we will shut the door if he leaves the room, makes noise, doesn't go to sleep, etc. Then when we follow through, he is in hysterics, of course, and requires additional comforting. ("Mommy, will you lay with me?") It's a no-win situation here!

Will the sleep issues ever end?  I am beginning to realize that we may not get the kind of sleep we desire until these kiddos leave for college.  And, if I remember my own college life correctly, maybe not even then.