When Christopher was entrusted to us we had a lot of questions, one specifically was how we would do with sleeping. While we stayed at the hotel, we had a pretty good idea of what to expect. We had two full sized beds in the room and Christopher and Mom slept in one and Dad in the other.
Not a huge fan of covers, and we’ve conquered the need for the wall.
We did pretty well all in all, and the kid sleeps like the dead once he’s out. We’re very lucky in that regard. The hotel was a unique situation since we were all stuck together in one big room, and as we know, monsters cannot harm you with parents in the room.
While we’re on the subject, here are the things you should know about monsters and when it’s safe:
- Monsters cannot harm you and will not appear when parents are in the room
- Monsters cannot harm you if you are asleep, they like you to know they’re coming.
- Monsters require darkness, and light is the enemy, the more light the better
- If you yell for your mom or dad in the middle of the night the monsters will hear you and come to get you before your mom and dad can come help you.
It’s terrifying, but those are the facts. The good news is that there are things that you can do and here are some of the things we are doing:
- Mom stays with Christopher until he is asleep or nearly out before leaving the room every night.
- Make sure you have at least one night light, the closer to the bed the better. Thankfully we have three going currently. One covering each monster hot spot in the room.
- We need a contact method that doesn’t require a yell for help or getting out of bed. What to do? We’ll explore this further.
Once we were home we still had to sort out how he would handle sleeping in his own room. Prior to the hotel he shared a dorm with at least 8 other boys, and there is definitely safety in numbers. Then there was the hotel room with Mom and Dad, and now that we’re home, he’s flying solo.
Mom has tried to make it clear that if he ever needed us he can just yell. Our bedroom doors are only twelve feet apart and we would be there in seconds. We often ask him how he slept and most of the time it’s fine. To us, he seemed to be the perfect sleeper and we didn’t really seem to be having any issues. Sometimes he confesses that he wakes up. At first it was home sickness, and he admitted that he was sad some nights, but always assured us that he was fine and that we don’t need to worry about it. Now that we’re beyond a good portion of the homesickness he’s started to confess to mom that he’s scared at night. Beth always reaffirms with him that he can always yell for her, but he just doesn’t.
One night, as she laid in bed with him after story time, chatting as they usually do, he confessed that he couldn’t yell. He was afraid that the monsters would get him if they heard him yell for help. We had no idea. Beth thought about it and was sure a baby monitor was the way to go. I didn’t really think so. If he wasn’t going to yell for us he certainly wasn’t going to make noise enough to wake us up with a baby monitor. And we’re not going to wake up just because he is, so that just wouldn’t work out. It finally hit Beth, the answer was so good it was awesome. The monsters really didn’t know who they were dealing with.
A Wireless doorbell. It’s the perfect solution. This cheap little puppy has 32 different chimes so that we aren’t having the dogs barking in the middle of the night because they’ve heard “the doorbell sound” and monsters will have no idea that a silent alarm was tripped in the room that they’re currently stalking. We can adjust the volume and plug it in right next to mom. It’s not that dad wouldn’t be willing to get up and make the trip to check on things, it’s just that mom is the preferred night time parent. The remote can be in bed, under the pillow, for quicker response times.
After it arrived we looked everything over and showed Christopher the plan. He thought it was pretty stinking cool. We immediately took it up to his room and used the two sided tape that it came with to mount it right to the bed post. The receiver was installed next to mom, as planned.
Mounted for quick access. 
Lights and sound to make sure we get up.
It took a couple of nights, but it was finally put into use. He woke up in the middle of the night and had to use the bathroom. Dad never heard the bell go off, but mom was on it and made sure there was a safe escort to the toilet. He was pleased as punch that things worked out, and now he knew if he had a real emergency that he’d have mom there in no time.
While the dark is still a bit scary, the monster concerns have started to subside, so it’s a win. The final piece is that monsters can really only affect you if you’re afraid of them, so we’re already well on our way to squashing those fears! On to the next worry!
