Arachnophobia

We dealt with our very first bout of nightmares last week. I say nightmares, but technically it could have been actual spider sightings. We'll never really know.

J woke up screaming in the middle of the night. Of course he cried for daddy (I've trained him well). And as my husband is amazing, I shook him awake (under the guise of 'but I'm too pregnant to get out of bed') to rush to our child's rescue.

Through the monitor I hear J tell Matt that he's scared and needs to sleep in mommy's bed. Matt is exhausted and sort of brushes him off. But in the morning, J sticks to his story. Upon opening his bedroom door, I'm bombarded with the following run-on sentence: "mama, I scared, daddy tell me lie down, there spider in my crib, no like crib!" He's convinced said spider is still there. And being the heroine that I am, I fake smash this fake spider and fake throw it away. He's still not convinced and refuses to nap in his 'spider crib' that day.

So, we decide now's as good a time as any to make that 'boy big bed' transition. We tried once over the summer, with disastrous results. But this time I have a secret weapon at my disposal. This weapon is called BRIBERY and it's one of the most suitable parenting tools available. Matt and I bought a box of 8 Cars characters. And each morning, after a successful night of sleeping in his boy big bed, he chooses a car as a reward.

Thus far it's been just what he needs to convince him to sleep in the bed. But tonight, as Matt is driving him home from the grocery store the following conversation takes place.

Matt: J, when we get home, you can watch one show and then it's time for sleeping. And in the morning you can make a new car pick.

J: Ok daddy. I go home, watch Mickey, sleep in boy big bed. And daddy fix crib. Daddy fix crib in 2 minutes and I get crib back.

So now I feel rather guilty. Poor child didn't ask to become an older brother. And let's face it....there's no other reason to force him from the bed he loves, but to pass it onto baby brother.