Carter's Sleep Shenanigans

I joke with Ty that every time we figure out what works for Carter as far as bedtime goes, he changes it up on us again. And I say joke but it's not really a joke. It seems like every other month or so he starts having a hard time going to sleep at night. We figure out a trick that helps him for a few weeks and then it's back to him screaming and crying at bedtime. Thankfully once he falls asleep he's out, no middle of the night wake ups and he typically sleeps until 7 am or so. For a while I thought maybe he didn't need a nap anymore and if we skipped it, he'd go down for bed better. We tried that and not only was Carter a little terror all afternoon, but he was so overtired, he couldn't fall asleep at night. Then I tried waking him from his nap after an hour and a half. That didn't help with bedtime and it also caused him to scream cry for a solid 30 minutes or so after I woke him. We did the whole go in at certain increments. None of that worked. We tried all of that and a few others I'm sure I'm not remembering in between successful methods.

First it was because Carter was scared of the dark so we gave him a night light which worked for a while. Then even that was too dark and he wanted us to leave his door open which again worked for a while. Next it was still too dark and he was scared so we left the hallway bathroom light on for him. Eventually that no longer was sufficient either. When I'm saying he struggled I mean that he would lay in bed screaming and banging on the wall. He'd even wake Elise sometimes. It was terrible. Most the time when I'd go in his room with him to put him down, Harper would be on his bed. He'd say he wanted her to leave so I'd take her with me. One night he asked for me to bring her back. When I did, he went down so much better that night. We were back to just his nightlight with the door shut, hallelujah! Right now he goes to bed with his nightlight on, the door shut, and Harper on his bed. It's so sweet because when he first goes down, we hear him talking to Harper a little bit before he goes to sleep. I'm sure this will stop working at some point too, but right now we are loving the quiet, calm that is bedtime. We embrace it because we know it won't be long until he's throwing another wrench in our bedtime schedule. But what can you do? Just be patient and keep trying something new. It drives Ty crazy and he keeps asking me if other people's kids are so difficult at bedtime. My answer is, some kids are easier to deal with, some are harder, but every child is difficult at times and every child comes with their own unique challenges and frustrations that come along with it. Our frustration right now is that Harper barks to be let out of Carter's room around 6am, thus waking Carter up. But we'll take that any day over the screaming at bedtime.