happy campers

so far so good. we have been working on a new sleep solution for Cash and it seems to be working. he has chosen to have his door open when he sleeps. that's just fine with us. but the rule is, if you get out of bed we close your door for 5 minutes. he gets out of bed and we close the door. he is very unhappy about this and usually cries for the whole 5 minutes. we go back, open the door and ask him to get back in bed. repeat "do you want the door open or closed? [open, ok]. if you get out of bed we have to close the door and it will be longer next time. please stay in your bed so you can keep the door open."
the first night he got out of bed 3 times and came into our bed at 4am. the second night he got out of bed 1 time, whimpered for a while and then fell asleep. he woke up at 3:30am and turned on his light (?). I explained the process and he got out of bed, door closed (for a shorter period since it was the middle of the night), he didn't like it. got back in bed and slept until 7am.
the best part. the best part of all...he was such a happy camper this morning. he was pleasant, no whining, no complaining, no bossing. just the picture of perfection - sweet, kind, funny, loving. it is really obvious now how a good night (plenty of rest and no fighting/crying) really effects him in a positive way.
i'm on cloud nine right now! we can do this. we can get our good sleeper back.