My son has become infatuated with “Thomas. Tank. Engine.” So, the other night (big parenting mistake coming, take note) after a house full of family left for the night, family we haven’t seen in over a year, family that is loving on my son, kissing, playing and hugging on him all night, after they left. After he was totally wound up. After all that, we thought it was a good idea to let him — enter bad parenting mistake — watch TV.

“Thomas the Tank Engine” was recorded (love TiVo) so I let him watch one episode. Against my better judgment. It is already way past his bedtime. He is already worked up. For some crazy reason I think TV will calm him down. Well, I am right on that. It does calm him down. Right up until the point when Mommy turns the TV off because Thomas went “nite-nite.”

Enter toddler meltdown.

My husband and I look at each other. “Don’t do it,” he says to me as I hold the remote. (background: **CRYING, CRYING, CRYING**) I think for a moment, the best one can think during all that crying. Of course the easy thing is to put “Thomas” back on. After all, it is a DVR, but he doesn’t know that. I explain that Thomas went nite-nite. That his Aunt, Uncle and cousins went nite-nite. That Mommy and Daddy WANT to go nite-nite.

No dice.

We decide the best thing is to hold our ground as parents and let him cry it out. This is why I hate “Thomas the Tank Engine” right now. If I had never heard of this show, I would have never let him watch it tonight. I would have read books, or played with his Little People, his cars … anything but let him watch 15 minutes of some show on TV. Lesson learned.

It takes about an hour (maybe longer) to get him to calm down, but he finally does after some major distractions and about three time outs. He is exhausted, we are exhausted.

Next time we watch “Thomas,” or any TV, it won’t be right before bed, that’s for sure.

So I know TV isn’t always a bad thing and I don’t hate “Thomas” because of it. We do use TV at times for entertainment and on occasion for parental relief, but tonight is an example of when I think we’re better off not watching and doing other things together as a family.

I’m not a morning person, but neither am I a late night diva. I like to get my 8 hours of sleep, although that rarely happens. I’d much rather sleep in or get a nap in the afternoon — neither are possible for moms. Even stay at home moms rarely get naps (although I’d skip the dishes to get a nap if I stayed home with my son.)  Moms work too hard not to get a break during the day.

In trying to find balance, I try to stick to a routine … get to bed at a reasonable hour and read before I sleep. It’s how I wind down from a long day. Then, come morning, I can start over for the new day.

My husband and I take turns getting to sleep in on the weekends so that we’re each greeted with at least one morning of extra sleep each week. It may only end up being one extra hour, but it’s that hour that keeps us going for the rest of the week.

Several months ago I wrote about how my toddler son suddenly had a hard time (that’s putting it nicely) sleeping in his crib. He had been the poster child of the perfect sleeper: never woke up in the middle of the night, never cried when we put him to bed, always went to bed with ease. Until we went away for a long weekend.

We remedied the problem through a series of experiments over 23 days, one of which I’ll tell you about today: It’s called the crib tent. While this is not a product blog, I feel I must write about this thing that brought order (and sleep!) back into my life.

I know a few moms who have resorted to the tent, so that made the transition easier for me. It’s not easy to put your toddler in his crib and zip him in. I felt like a bad mom; our bedtime routine has become: brush teeth, read book, hugs and kisses, put in crib, say “Nite, nite,” then ZIIIIIP! and lights off.

The first night I felt pretty bad zipping that tent up, but he didn’t seem to mind. It got easier after time, especially the peace of mind it gives me knowing that he’s not going to climb out of his crib in the middle of the night and start playing with something dangerous. It’s been a little over two months now and we still use it — otherwise he’d be climbing out every night. I think that we’ll transition to a toddler bed sooner than I have planned, but for now, the tent is working.

Related links:

• How to get your child to sleep resources
• Crib tent details
  

The other night as I was putting my son to bed he wanted to take the strangest items to bed with him — magnets. He’s formed a new friendship with these old, colored button-shaped magnets that have been on our refrigerator since before he was born.

The first night I almost (read, ALMOST) let him take them to bed. I didn’t want to deal with taking something away from him right before bed, causing a tantrum which could result in me loosing my evening “free time,” or worse, sleep. But, I thought twice about it (actually, my husband thought for me, but I am sure I would have had this same second thought if he hadn’t been home) and realized that it could be horrible if he swallowed them. Especially if he swallowed two of them. So, we took them from him and he went to bed.

Last night I didn’t have to think twice. I knew immediately to take them away, but that is soooo much easier to say than to do. It was like not letting him take his stuffed teddy to bed. I made him put the magnet (earlier, I had sneakingly, narrowed the group of magnets down to one, kitty-shaped magnet) and asked him to leave it on the dresser. Then, I put him in bed and left the room.

Crying begins.

Crying continues as I jump on the computer and write an email to a friend.

Cut the email short because he’s still crying; back into the room I go.

He’s standing up, pointing to the dresser. I get him out of the crib, discretely steal the kitty-shaped magnet and take him out of the room. He quickly became more interested in what was going on in the living room that he forgot about the magnet. After about 10 minutes he went back to bed — this time with three extra stuffed animals. And, THAT I don’t have to think twice about!

I’ve written about getting kids to go to sleep — and sleep through the night, but what about the parents? I have no problem getting to sleep, but it seems I’m finding it hard to get a solid nights’ rest. I think we finally got my son back on track (I’ll have to write a separate post about how I did that), but now there are other things waking me up at night.

Sometimes it’s one of our pets — the cats are in the way on the bed, the dog needs to go outside, or it’s the neighbor’s dogs who are barking at something.

When I was working full-time I’d wake up in the middle of the night worrying about a project I was working on or a presentation I had to give. Sometimes it was stress waking me up, other times it was the excitement of the project. I do some of my best thinking at night.

I’ve learned to keep a notebook and pen on my nightstand for those middle of the night ideas. I wake up in the morning with something barely legible next to me, then I recall my great idea. The times I thought I would remember it on my own, I never did. Not only does writing it down help me remember, but it gets the idea out of my head so I can go back to sleep. I just wish that worked with the other distractions that keep me awake.