Failed or just changing?

I mentioned the other night that we were trying something new in the Heck Household when it came to Thomas' sleep tendencies.  First, let me give some background: For a little over a month now, he has been coming into our room (usually sometime after we have gone to sleep) and fallen asleep on the floor with his little blanket and baby bear on my side of the bed.  Most of the time, we don't even know he is there.  However, recently things have been changing.  He either comes in crying (and seemingly scared) of a bad dream or something, or will talk in his sleep... both of which wake us up.  Most recently, he had an accident (which isn't a big deal... it rarely happens) while he was sleeping on the carpet.  To me that is 10x worse than having to change linens.  So, this is where we were this weekend.  We want Thomas back in his bed getting a good night sleep.  We just needed a game plan.

Introduce "Dino-Dragon Operation."  It is a spin off of what I tried about 1.5 years ago shortly after Brian deployed and Abbigail was just an infant.  However, it is adjusted to (hopefully) fit an-almost-four-year old and is geared towards something special he feels like he gets to do.  Simply put:

• For every night that he sleeps in his bed (all night), he will earn ONE dinosaur or dragon sticker of his choice.
• Once he earns THREE stickers (equal to his current age), he will be able to stay up after Abby goes to bed and watch a movie (about 30 min).  He loves this.  He gets cozy on the couch and savors the moments where is still awake and baby sister has gone to bed.

Unfortunately, Friday night did not work out well at all.  So bad that I was up until 2am trying to put my foot down and keep him in his room.  After that amount of time, you would think Mommy would have been victorious and he would have passed out with exhaustion.  Nope.  Instead, it was Mommy who was passing out from exhaustion.

Thomas didn't sleep in our bedroom, but he did sleep in the kitchen with his pillow, blanket and baby covered with his big Mickey blanket.  It was for a few short hours until Daddy got up to use the bathroom and woke him and brought him back to his bed.  Thank goodness Thomas slept for a few short hours in a cozy, warm and soft bed.  It is safe to say that new game plan failed as of night #1.  No stickers earned.

However, on a more positive note, night #2 was a little better in several ways.  First, I will say that no stickers were earned.  However, Thomas returned to his bed (unprompted) in the wee hours of the morning and continued to sleep in until 7:15 which is unheard of in our house.  To us... that is TWO very positive changes.

And that brings us to tonight... night #3.  We will see what happens.  I know a change in his sleep pattern will take time.  I also know that he really may be having some bad dreams (which I am sensitive to), but we will continue to firmly encourage him to sleep in his bed.  Yes, we have talked about what to do when he wakes up from bad dreams; we have opened closet doors and looked under the bed to ensure there are no monsters or scarey witches.  This too shall take time.  But with consistency and lots of love & encouragement, we will get back to full night sleeps in everyone's own bed.