Sleep is a Beautiful Thing!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Today I am so grateful for sleep.  SO GRATEFUL!

I was reminded last weekend how much we love sleep and Tired Teddies.  If you knew me in real life, I've probably already proclaimed to you how these miracle herbs have changed our life.  You think I'm kidding?  Read on, because I'm not!  Tired Teddies are an all natural chewable sleep aid for little ones.  It's basically a chewable melatonin with some other awesome special herbs that help kids sleep.  It's all natural with no crap or fillers, and best of all- it works!!  No guilt, happy kids, and a very happy mama.  You see, I think my boys both win the grand prize for worst sleepers in the world.  They are terrible sleepers.  Terrible!

My oldest didn't start out a terrible sleeper.  He was actually a pretty easy baby.  He started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks.  He was always so content to just be in his crib by himself and watch his ceiling fan slowly spin.  I could leave him on the ground and he would entertain himself and be content on his own for hours.  But this is all another story for another time, we're talking about sleep today.

I got pregnant with my 2nd son, Ash,  when my oldest son, Ez,  was just barely 12 months old.  I think it all started to go downhill from there.  When Asher was born, he was a terrible sleeper and he cried ALL OF THE TIME.  I blamed it on so many things.  He was born premature (both of my boys were born 5 weeks premature) and he spent over a week in the NICU.  When we finally took him home I woke him up and fed him every 3 hours.  He was so little and he needed to gain weight.  Months went by and although I was not waking him up in the middle of the night to feed him, he was still waking up. 

Asher did not sleep through the night until he was 18 months old.  I am not kidding.  I had every book imaginable on sleep training.  I ordered dvds from the baby whisperer.  I made sure he ate a ton of food right before bed because he would wake up hungry.  Still, he did not sleep through the night until he was 18 months old.  And when I say 'sleep through the night' I mean he went from waking 4 times a night to waking 1 time a night.  Believe me when I say that was a fuzzy 18 months for me!  I was so sleep deprived. 

This was during his 'I have to wear my helmet everywhere' phase.

 Ezra was always good about going to bed, but he would wake up in the middle of the night and 'sleep walk' and do weird things.  He really freaked me out one night when he got up out of bed and with his eyes closed sat upright in a chair we had right beside our bed.  I worried that he would walk right out the front door!  I still do!  We've taken the necessary precautions for a lock on the top of the front door.  We also had to start locking him in his room (for his safety).  Even still, I would find him in his room the next morning in the weirdest positions or on the hardwood floor with his head smashed into the corner of the wall.  Inevitably, he would wake up tired and groggy and not well rested.

Fast forward 6 months.  Asher had just turned 2 and Ezra had just turned 4.  I ordered Tired Teddies and was very skeptical.  Very skeptical.  A friend of mine had heard about them and knew my situation- as Tired Teddies advertised that they were great for kids with Autism.  Well, I was blown away.  Both of my boys, let me repeat that, BOTH OF MY BOYS slept through the night that first night with absolutely no problems.  This had to be a coincidence, right?  So the next night we tried them again- and same thing!  To make a very long story short- we started using them around April/May of this year and I have been using them every single day since then.  For the first time in almost 3 years I am also sleeping through the night because I am not getting up with the kids!

This was his 'wear your sunglasses everywhere' phase. :-)

In the past 6 months or so, I have been telling everyone about Tired Teddies.  It sounds so cliche, but they have really changed my life.  It's not fun to not sleep through the night.  My boys were missing lots of preschool and we were missing lots of church because everyone was sleep deprived and getting sick!

Sleeping like a champ!!

 So this past weekend I went out of town to attend my best friend's wedding.  My husband took work off and stayed home with the boys.  What a great guy, right?!  Jason is normally a very busy attorney and he isn't usually home when I put the boys to bed.  So he doesn't really remember every part of our bedtime routine.  About 2 days into my absence, Jason was going nuts.  The kids weren't sleeping and they were having some bad tantrums.  He called me and was complaining to me about it.  I was like: 'well did you give them their Tired Teddies?'  And the answer: no, he didn't.  The next 2 nights the boys got their Teddies and there were absolutely no sleep problems.  These little teddies are a miracle!!  I was reminded how awesome these little herbs are when we got a glimpse of what our sleepless life used to be like. :-)  And you know what else?  They taste really good too.  My boys both love the flavor.  And should I be admitting this- I have been known to take one when I am having problems sleeping.  They taste great.

So that's my soapbox.  Tired Teddies gave me back my sleep and my life!  As dramatic as that sounds, they truly did.