Yeshaya and bedtime

A little while back a friend was commenting about the difficulties she was having getting her child to sleep in her own bed. I arrogantly told her that we nipped our problem in the bud and Yeshaya climbs into bed with Zvi instead of us. Well that lasted all of two nights. We have a serious issue here. Yeshaya just won't stay in his own bed. I guess it all started when he realized that he could climb out of his crib and have the freedom to explore. We immediately switched him to a bed for obvious safety reasons (hard, cold, stone, Israeli floors). For a while now, Yeshaya would fall asleep for a nap and then not be so tired at bed time. The others would be fast asleep, I'd be zonked from my ever so stressful day (facebook, email, surfing the web) and I'd take him into bed with me to fall asleep. Okay, so maybe I created this monster! David decided it was time for him to take over bedtime since I wasn't really doing a great job at it. I have to admit that David succeeded pretty quickly getting Yeshaya to fall asleep in his own bed, but he has yet to prove his powers in keeping Yeshaya in his bed during the night.

Last night was just precious. David and I went out to celebrate New Years (actually it was the only night that David didn't have to work) and David's mother babysat for us. We tried to make it as easy as possible for her since a previous time the kids gave her some trouble. We set the kids up in our room to watch Shrek 3. Apparently Yeshaya fell asleep right away and the others stayed up to watch the whole movie. (Let me backtrack a second and say that Zvi has been sleeping on a mattress in Rivka and Leora's room so that Yeshaya doesn't wake him up with his screaming in the middle of the night as we train him to stay in his own bed). The older three kids went on their own to bed but Rivka got nervous that Yeshaya was on his own in our room so she carried him into her bed. When we got home David tried to transfer Yeshaya to his own bed but he woke up. We tried for quite some time to calm him down and have him remain in his bed, but we weren't succeeding. Finally we just closed the door and let him scream. I think he was just too exhausted to climb out of bed. All of a sudden we hear Leora talking to him. She asked him if he wanted her to lie down with him and it was like music to his ears. He instantly calmed down. She told him that she first had to go to the bathroom and that she'd be right back. It was just so cute listening to them. David went to help Leora bring her pillows and blanket to his bed and she slept there for the rest of the night.