Rough Night!

I am sitting here at the computer with BONES on in the background. The kids were all 4 put to bed a half hour ago but James (who is 29 months) is up in his room crying. He usually goes to bed so easily! Pop him in bed, have a prayer and he is out for the night! Every once in awhile he really seems to fight it. Often I can bring him down and cuddle for a bit and he settles right down and goes back to bed. Unfortunately he has been doing this more and more often and I think he is trying to make a habit of it! It is so hard to resist, but also important as a parent that I sit and resist. The last night he did this he ended up falling asleep on the couch.

I will admit, I love it when he gets all cuddly! And knowing he is my last little one makes it harder to resist! However I know I am doing him a favor by teaching him to self-soothe. There are times when I do go cuddle him...like during storms.

We have had a couple of storms here recently and he has experienced his first thunderstorm he was old enough to really notice. He woke screaming in the middle of the night after a particularly loud crack. When I got to his room he kept pointing out the window. I asked if he was afraid of the storm and he informed me that he was afraid of the "train coming in his room". He is still convinced that storms are trains! This morning he woke to another storm at 6:00 a.m. and informed me he was "Scared of train"! Three of my children have been afraid of storms. Jessica (who is 6 now) has been the worst one. She used to have to come to our room and lay on the floor, mostly under the bed, then put the blanket over her head and have the radio on. Now she just runs to Rebekah's room. Rebekah is 13 now and can handle her coming in and cuddling her. I think it makes her feel special.

Does anyone else have problems with their kids and bedtime or storms? As I write this about 15 more minutes have passed and he is getting worse instead of better. He has never been a child who can cry himself to sleep. Usually he gets more and more hysterical until he is having trouble breathing! Since I don't like letting it get that far, I guess I will go and get a boy and cuddle him! I hope anyone reading this has a wonderful night, with kids that go to bed ontime!

Suz