Sleep Study

"I don't know how to go to sleep!  I never learned how!" my six-year-old son has said at numerous bedtimes.
"Ha!" I would think to myself, "Not know how to go to sleep?  That's so easy!  Lay down and in 2.5 seconds you're out!  Or drive a car for long distances!  Or read a boring book - or any book for that matter!  The options are endless!  Not know how to go to sleep?  I've never heard anything so crazy!"

Um, this kid speaketh the truth.  He apparently has some issues with going to sleep.

And his issues hit about midnight last night.  I see him inches from my face as I try to pull out of my sleepy stupor.  He is bemoaning his inability to go to sleep and suggesting he sleep at the foot of our bed, where our feet are currently residing.  I gently tell him to go back to his room, turn on his dreamlight (best $30 spent evah!), say a prayer and drift off into la-la land.

I roll back over and drift immediately back to sleep (re: my amazing ability to fall asleep just about anywheres).  Moments later he returns.  I suggest he might be having trouble sleeping because he is currently standing in my bedroom, but he is unhelpable.  This goes back and forth several times until he suggests I sleep with him, and out of exhaustion, I acquiesce.

This is never a good idea, and you think I would know this by now!  I curl up next to him and close my eyes, portraying what sleep looks like (I am an actress now, remember?).  After a few moments I open one eye to check his status.  He is staring back at me.  I sigh and try to get comfortable, though I am lying on several stuffed animals and I am pretty sure the sheet has popped off the top corner, meaning I am sleeping on bare mattress.  After quite awhile he is still and I am freezing, since there were apparently not enough covers for dear old mom.  I sneak off the bed as quietly and gently as one can do when in bed with a child and a zoo full of stuffed animals.  He immediately sits up and reports he is still awake.

After soothing him some more, I finally head back to my bed and slip under the glorious grown up covers, completely free of all teddy bears and hedgehogs.  A few minutes later I hear my dear son hit up his father on the other side of the bed.  Maybe he'll have more luck with daddy?

Daddy made an effort to comfort him as well, while I stayed snuggled in, waiting.  I'm pretty sure my husband said something like "I am dying a slow and painful death", but that could have been my own thoughts - everything is fuzzy.

A little before 3 my youngest daughter comes in, probably having awakened during all the non-sleeping goings on.  As I tucked her back in, I noticed my son was still half sitting up in his bed. I didn't hear from him anymore after that, though, so I am hopeful he finally drifted off.

He has school today, so I am sure he is doing great!  Attentive, well-behaved...you get the idea.  Something tells me he might not have any trouble falling asleep tonight - I hope!