Our Successful Bedtime Story

Until three weeks ago, Will had been getting up at least once a night, on average of 4-7 nights a week.  This past year he would thankfully fall back to sleep (in our bed), unlike during his kindergarten year when he would wake between 2:00 and 5:00 a.m. Every. Day.  And then he would be awake for the day.  I hated sending him to school on the earlier waking days.  So did his teacher.

We thought we had tried everything to help him stay asleep.  But while on a family/friend vacation to Florida, he miraculously slept all night every night!  When we got back home, we tried to figure out why he slept so well on vacation.  First we purchased an air purifier like the one that was in his vacation bedroom, thinking maybe it was the white noise that made the difference. But that didn't do the trick.

His bed in the vacation bedroom was against the wall, and being "a leaner" (proprioception seeking behavior, to you sensory folks), we decided to recreate that environment in his bedroom.  Without having to rearrange his room, this is the too simple solution that had worked for the past (glorious) three weeks:

It's not particularly pretty, but it works!  On the right side of the bed, I rolled up a thick quilt, then covered it with a fleece blanket (he likes fleece).  On top of that, I made his bed and snuggly tucked all the blankets in under his mattress on the right side. I put several pillow and pillow-like items (stuffed animals & pillow pets) around his head.  The final and very important last step is once he's in bed, I have him roll towards the quilt while I wedge a final pillow(pet) on the left side.  When he rolls onto his bank, he is in a snug little nest.  

It's certainly not rocket science, but this took us almost eight years to figure out. And so far, it works like a charm!