Daddy Skillz

Ian has been through several phases with regards to sleeping:

1) birth-3 months: slept very well for a newborn waking about twice a night. No problem.

2) 3-months-9 months: hard to get to sleep, hard to keep asleep. Very hard to get him to sleep at a reasonable hour, he woke up every few hours. I ended up co-sleeping with him out of sheer exhaustion.

3) 9 months-20 months: easy to get to bed, hard to keep asleep. A good bedtime routine made it easy to get him down initially, and he could drift off on his own. Still waking up frequently. Still co-sleeping after the first awakening.

4) 20 months-21 months: relatively easy to get to bed, sleeping through the night. A combination of a toddler bed and weaning helped make things easy and reliable for a while (although Ian was still an early riser, sleeping 7:30pm-5:30am)

5) 22 months: impossible to get to bed. Last week was the worst. Doug was travelling for a few days, and I spent hours each night trying to get Ian to go to and stay in bed. He screamed and screamed, got out of bed, found me, and attached himself to my leg. Ugh. No fun for him, no fun for me, and my few hours in the evening to prepare for the next day evaporated. When Doug got back, he took over. Now I get Ian changed into pajamas and help him brush his teeth, then he gets Daddy and I disappear. Doug read three books, asks Ian to go to his bed for the Story of Ian's Day, which Ian does calmly, tells the story, sings a song, and peacefully walks out while Ian talks himself to sleep. Now why can't I do that?

Thank goodness for Daddy skillz.