Knolan: Son of Jor-El? Pavlov's Dog?

Ugh. 

I looooove my baby Knolan.  I love him unconditionally and with all of my heart.  One of these days, however, he is going to send me screaming into the night in search of safe haven where uninterrupted sleep is king.

I swear he has some sort of super-human powers that allow him to:

A. Sense my presence
B. Sense the moment I drift off to sleep

I have just experienced super-human power B, and now that I'm wide awake, I might as well write about it.  Oh 2am... you and I are becoming good friends.

Ask my husband.  Knolan has this uncanny ability to sense things.  For instance, at night time, after the kids have gone to sleep, Kenny could thunder back and forth past Knolan's room a dozen times with no effect on the boy.  When I finally decide that I am tired and want to go to sleep, I do my best to glide silently past the baby's room undetected, but the moment I walk past the door and slip quickly into bed...  "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"  Sigh.  He somehow knows it's me.

Or there is his ability to detect the moment I fall asleep.  Just now, for example, I decided enough was enough, and I was going to go to sleep.  He hadn't cried all night.  He was sleeping beautifully.  I laid my head down, and felt myself drift off.  I looked at the clock just before I fell asleep and it said 1:29am.  Suddenly I am ripped out of dreamland by the screams of my son.  I look at my clock... 1:32am.  Sigh.  How does he know?!  This happens practically EVERY NIGHT! 

I do have hope, however, and this hope takes 2 forms.  First, we actually did some sleep training with Knolan in January, and it worked beautifully.  Before sleep training, I would have to cuddle him and feed him until he drifted off to sleep and then gingerly lay him in his crib, and then watch as he woke up crying the second he hit the mattress, and then repeat the whole process 3-4 times until he finally stayed asleep.... after which he would wake up screaming and crying and often difficult to console about 5 times a night.  After the sleep training, he is now a happy, happy baby - we read, sing, cuddle, and then lay him in his crib awake, and he just dozes off on his own.  He was even sleeping through the night until he decided to sprout a baker's dozen teeth (ok... it was only 6 teeth) and get sick at the same time.  This all lasted about 6 weeks - during which time, the night wakings returned.  Thank goodness he will still go to sleep on his own, but we are going to have to repeat our training to get the poor little guy back into his routine.

The second sign that there is hope is a bizarre sign.  I have learned that Knolan associates his medicine dropper with sleep.  When he was teething, I'd give him a bit of Tylenol or Advil to help with the pain.  Well, he must have figured out the connection, because out of desperation the other night, I pretended to give him some medicine (I know... I don't understand half the things I do, but honestly, if you've ever been sleep deprived, you know... it does things to you.)  To my utter surprise, Knolan opened his mouth, sucked on the empty dropper for a moment, and then rolled over and went to sleep!

So, I've been testing this for a few nights, and apparently Pavlov was on to something!  This trick works every time!

Now, this doesn't solve the little matter of me actually wanting to sleep without being woken up multiple times, but this at least has helped to get him back to sleep quickly.  And now that he's finally shook this latest cold, and his teeth seem to be taking a break, I'll go back to helping him learn how to go back to sleep at night, and we should see a big difference shortly.

But at least I've got a trick up my sleeve in the meantime!

Anyway, Knolan is a funny little guy, and thankfully i am able to laugh at all of this during daylight hours.  I am, however, totally looking forward to that wonderful moment  when I am awakened by the sun shining in and then I slowly realize that I got a full night's sleep.  I can't wait!!!