This to shall pass...or so we hope!

Claire has never been a good sleeper but I at least had Sam who was pretty good at going down for "quiet time" everyday and going to bed at night without too much struggle. That is until about a week ago. We don't know if it was all the excitement of Santa coming, my parents being here or the side effects of cold medication but on Christmas Eve day everything changed. Sam did not want to go down for a nap and when I left his room after our normal nap routine of reading a book and lots of kisses and came running after me screaming. This went on for 45 minutes! I did everything I could think of...talking to him, time outs, screaming, bribing. You name it and I did it. Nothing worked. I finally managed to get him to stay in his room, although I don't know how and he did actually fall asleep. That night was no different. Bill ended up staying in his room until he fell asleep. This would start a very bad habit. We went through several days of difficult naps and bedtimes and even some very difficult middle of the nights where Sam would go to the top of the stairs and scream for daddy. Eventually after moving some toys into his room and promising a piece of candy if he stayed in his room during nap we have been able to have a pretty peaceful naptime. Bedtime is still tricky and he wants Bill in his room with him when he falls asleep which is fine when he's really tired and will fall right to sleep but not so good when he has taken a 2 hour nap and isn't very tired for bed. Bill stays with him in his room for a little while until he falls asleep and now we have put an extra crib mattress on the floor next to our bed so if Sam wakes up in the middle of the night and can sleep in our room but not in our bed. It seems to be working for now but I don't know how long this will last. In the midst of all of this my "bad" sleeper, Claire, has still been waking up and screaming in the middle of the night. Needless to say we haven't exactly been getting the sleep that we desire but hopefully this is just a phase, right?!