So if you are a parent, when did your baby start to sleep though the night?  I don’t know your answer, but I can tell you, you are lucky! Our kiddo just turned four and I can count the number of times she has slept though the night on one hand.  We have experienced all the big “sleep” issues: terrors (these suck), nightmares, and sleep walking…awesome.

The “normal sleeping” routine in our house is, kiddo wakes up at least twice, first between midnight and one- walking into our room and scarring the crap out of me, you would think I would be used to this by now, but having a little face 3 inches from yours just starring is startling. I take her hand, walk her to her room, she lays back down and is sound asleep in five seconds, me, it takes at least twenty minutes. The second occurrence is between three and four, when the “Lobsters are going to get me” happens.

Okay, why our kiddo is scared of lobsters is beyond me, granted they are not cute and cuddly, but really, lobsters.  It’s for sure not the normal four year old night time fear, but that’s our kiddo, there are lobsters in her room and in the walls. We have talked to her many times about lobsters, they don’t live here, etc. she says she knows that, but…. She is actually trembling when she comes screaming, running to our room with the lobsters chasing her, defiantly scared, and not just a habit. Taking her back to her room, calming her down, she gets cozy and is falling asleep while I am thinking maybe this night, the next step won’t happen… no such luck.

Five minutes later, she is in our room, with all the sleeping essentials: pillow, pok-a-dots blanket, blanks and various important stuffed animals of the moment, spreading her blankets on the floor next to me and falling asleep. At first this was okay. It makes it difficult for hubby to get ready for work in the morning, but it’s a phase.  This phase and nightmare has been occurring for at least six months now… time for a different plan, but what?

I started thinking about where her bed is in her room.  We have turned her closet into a princess bed, by putting her bed into the closet. Pretty cute right? She loves it, but maybe this is part of the problem?  We started to really pay attention to the noises in her room, we live in an apartment and the upstairs neighbors pipes go between her closet wall…ah maybe the lobsters “are real”. At this point we will try anything, so it’s time for a little furniture rearranging, mainly moving the bed, and we will see what happens.

Last night was the first night of our “Bed Relocation Trial”. She did get up four times, all four times for help blowing her nose (she has a pretty bad cold). But she did not come to sleep on our floor!  The lobsters had left the building. And she slept in! She, for her, had a good nights sleep.

I don’t want to jump up and down yet and say this is the solution, but I can’t help think, just maybe, this might help. Oh man, could it have been this easy, probably not. Moving the bed won’t stop the night terrors or sleep walking, but it might help the nightmares, one out of three….we will take it!

Do you have kiddos who have sleep issues? What have you tried?  I would love to know that we are not alone in the beautiful world of sleep issues.