To Sleep or Not To Sleep

So, my dear Nicholas seems to have absolutely no respect for sleep. He never seems to want any of his own - I used to swear he was solar powered as a baby, he never napped for more than 20 minutes - and he really wants to make sure that nobody else gets any.

Every night for the last week or so, he's been getting up about 10-15 minutes before Shawn's alarm goes off and about half an hour before I need to be up. He comes into our room and announces that he has to pee, is thirsty, is hungry, needs to cough, heard the dog having a nightmare, etc. We have tried telling him that he is not allowed to come out of his room until 7:00 or later, he waits for a 7 to appear anywhere on his digital clock (ex. 6:47) and then proceeds to wake us all up. We have explained over and over that he can simply pee, drink or cough as need be and he need not announce his need to. We have told him that, while Murphy may have had a nightmare, he is perfectly capable of going back to sleep without Nick's help. We've even gone as far as to threaten to put a baby gate across his doorway to keep him from waking us up during those last precious moments of sleep. He seems to be willing to go quietly back into his room after he's peed, drank, coughed, etc, but the problem is that, at this point, he's already woken Murphy up. Weather Murphy's had a nightmare or not, once woken up in the morning he does the pee-pee STOMP back and forth across our room. I have no idea how a 40-pound dog paces so loudly, but it could wake the dead - it's that loud. Anywho, no matter, the damage is already done. What's the point of Shawn falling back asleep when he has to be up in 10 minutes anyway. For me, I admit, I'm much like Murphy. Once I'm awake, I have to pee, and I have to do it right away. I'm capable of peeing without stomping though. However, once I'm up and out of bed, I'm awake enough to realize that I only have X amount of minutes before I have to get up. I cannot fall asleep normally, let alone under that kind of pressure. I usually just lay in bed pouting about my lost sleep. Our newest attempt is to not give Nick anything to drink before bed, keep the alarm clock in his room, have him let Murphy out in the morning and keep the threat of being gated into his room looming over his head. Hopefully this will keep him from waking us up. I fear this will only cause him to come into our room and stand silently next to my face waiting for me to feel his presence and wake up (startled) on my own.

He's also not respecting nap time at school anymore. Nicholas causes so much disruption at nap time that the teachers have tried "reward" charts for good behavior at nap time; moving him away from his closest friend; moving him away from all his friend and even moving him out of the room all together. Putting Nicholas in the toddler room for nap proved to do nothing but give him the opportunity to wake up his brother. I've considered that possibility that he's simply outgrown the need for a nap, but I don't think this is the case. He still naps at home on the weekends and, if he goes without, he's cranky all night. The teachers have also found that putting him on his mat under the science table away from his friends allows him to fall asleep almost immediately.

I have no idea how to teach him how important sleep is - if not for himself, then for those around him. I've taught him to eat veggies with little complaint, to use his manner and to share with his brother. He really is an amazingly well behaved (albeit very hyper) 4 1/2-year-old, he just can't grasp this one thing. I guess in the grand scheme of things, it's no big deal. Being somewhat of an insomniac, I just hate giving up those precious final 30 minutes of time I actually could be sleeping each day.

At least the baby seems to be sleeping better these day... now if only he could teach his big brother!