The Importance of Sleep

We were initially lucky, as a baby Callum slept through the night from about 6 weeks old, this lack of sleep that we'd read about wasn't really as bad as everyone had said. Then when Callum was 9 months old we had Kieran and now we understood the dazed looks on other parents faces. Believe me if we'd have had Kieran first then there's no way that our boys would be so close in age! Kieran didn't regularly sleep through the night until he was a little over 2 years old.

We then had a few blissful months of both kids going to sleep by themselves and then more importantly staying asleep.

Move forward to about October of last year and Callum learns a new skill.

He learns to climb out of his cot.

Yes we're pleased that his climbing skills have improved and his ability to land pretty safely is also a plus, but with this new found skill comes the realisation that being put into bed at night does not mean the end of the days fun. He stops putting himself to sleep and instead we have to sit in his room and sneak out veeeerrrry veerrrryyy quietly once he's dropped off. The pitter patter of tiny feet is now the thump of a 3 year old hitting the floor.

We moved back to England at the end of November and left the cot behind. Callum took full advantage of being in a big boys bed and we'd hear those little feet several times a night closely followed by a little Callum climbing into our bed. Much as we love him when he showed his autie Eleanor our bed and pointed at mummy's space, daddy's space and in the middle Callum's space we knew things had to change.

Our salvation has been a new bed, which looks very much like this (except his has a blue tent at the bottom rather than a football theme)

He can get in and out, but isn't completely comfortable getting out without help so he stays put! He's even back to putting himself to sleep!!!

So Mark and I have now had about 10 days of unbroken sleep and it's pure bliss.