If you’re the parent of a kid like mine, the topic of sleep is often on your mind. Not my sleep, but his.
Since the beginning, My TBP has not required the expected sleep. He gave up that beloved second nap time way too early for my liking and was done with all naps by two years.
The terrier and I missed those quiet nap times. We would just sit down for our own rest and without fail, that’s when my son would call for me.
I’d look at the dog and she’d sigh as if to say, “Here we go again.”
I was sure that the disappearance of the naps would bring on an earlier bedtime.
No such luck.
Mine has always struggled to go to sleep. It seems that his mind and thoughts just open wide in the darkness. That’s when the questions and fears arrive or when a retell of the day’s activities must be shared.
Although we crave the quiet, we remind ourselves that these night conversations won’t last long. There will be a time when we aren’t welcomed in his room.
Not being a morning person, it took me some time to get used to his wide-eyed quick awakenings.
As a preschooler, he would wake shortly after 5:00. He sprang up for play and talk and exploring. A 6:00 morning felt like a luxury and for years it seemed that by ten o’clock we should have lunch.
Gradually, 6:00 became 6:15 and that became 6:30. The morning we woke up at 7:00 without his words, I worried. I went straight to his room to check on him. There he was sleeping peacefully.
Now that My TBP is ten (how can that be possible?!), we don’t get those 6 AM wake up calls. Mostly because it’s hard to shut off his mind at night.
He uses the word “insomnia” and shares our frustration when ten turns to eleven and soon twelve will come.
Sleep is always a topic for My TBP and our family, but I imagine that we aren’t the only family with our lights on too late or too early.
How about you?
My Twice Baked Potato 
I always enjoy your posts!
I started a day home when my son was 2 years plus 2 months. It would take me half an hour of nursing him to get him to bap, then 30-60 mins at bedtime. He would nap 3 hrs then sleep 6hrs at night. For the first time I saw first hand other kids sleep abilities and how tough sleep was for my son. By 2.5 years I could no longer coax him to nap and we would read books while the others napped. This was wonderful as he got in 9 hrs at night. Always an early riser regardless of when we put him to sleep. 5am in the spring and summer and when we turn the clocks back in the fall he’d be up at 4am for the fall and winter. This is his first winter sleeping until 5-6am rather than 4am or the dreaded extra early wake up call of 3:30am. That happened occasionally, once on Christmas Day we opened gifts like zombies.
His brain races at night and the second he stirs in the morning he springs to life anxious to start his day.
When it’s really late or really early, I have to breathe and remind myself that I love being his parent and appreciate the fast journey.
Lights on way too late here. It’s a main topic now in our home. On the other end, though, it’s about difficulty getting up.
Our get up time has shifted too. I’m thankful we homeschool because we are able to adjust.
Our eldest was a sleeper like that, but he changed when he was in his teens. Suddenly he was hard to wake. My youngest is homeschooled, and has always been a night owl, but she could sleep in the morning. Since she can read, I let her read untill she falls asleep. Before that, I read to her, that was harder…