Not So Sweet Dreams

I don't know what has gotten into Ryan lately, but bedtime has become our least favorite part of the day. Ryan is normally very good about going to bed. Duane will read him some stories, then tell Ryan it's time to go to sleep and Ryan will hop down from Duane's lap, crawl into bed, grab his Bobo and go to sleep. No more. That little night time angel seems to gone.

For the past few nights Ryan SCREAMS when Duane leaves the room after stories. On Friday the scream fest lasted until almost 10:30 (that's 2 hours after bedtime). Since Ryan wasn't asleep when I went up to bed, I put him in bed with me. Nice idea, but not real comfortable and I don't think anyone slept very well.

Saturday night we decided to be tough. Ryan screamed and screamed and cried for about 45 minutes before falling asleep on the floor of his room. We left him there for awhile, but Duane did pick him up and put him in bed - causing the screaming to start again. We all managed some sleep, but at about 4:30 AM Ryan started calling out for us - so into our bed he went.

Sunday night was the same routine - although this time Ryan only cried for about half and hour. When Duane went in to check on the little guy he found Ryan sleeping with his feet on the floor and his upper body resting on the bed. Duane scooped Ryan into his bed and things seemed well. At least until 12:30 AM. That's when the little voice in the room next to ours began calling, "Daddy! Daddy!" We ignored it for awhile, but then Ryan started calling "Mama. Mama," and it started getting harder for me to ignore. After a few minutes Duane said, "You can go get him if you want." So that was night three with Ryan in the bed with us.

Last night Ryan again screamed for about half an hour, but he woke up again when Wesley went upstairs. I got Wesley ready for bed while Duane calmed the little one. He only had to stay with Ryan for about 5 or 10 minutes. I'd call that a victory except for what happened later. We went to bed around 11:20, at midnight we were up with Wesley to take him potty. At 2:00, Ryan started crying for his Daddy again. Duane went into Ryan's room and ended up falling asleep on the hardwood floor for a while. I think I forgot to mention that Duane gets up around 5:30 for work. Needless to say, he did not have a good night.

I just don't understand what is going on with Ryan. I know we're going to have to ride it out, but it's turning into a pretty painful ride.