Each night we put Rylan to sleep and then go lay down in our own bed to essentially watch him from afar. When he is having a really tough time we encourage him to lay down in which he normally cries a bit and then passes out. Normally the process doesn't take more than 15 minutes. We figure this is a good alternative to putting him in bed, taking off and let him cry himself to sleep. This is a bit of a play on the Super Nanny idea which is basically getting your child to sleep by being visible but not responsive.

The other night we did our normal routine and then went downstairs for a few hours. When we returned upstairs to head to bed ourselves, I noticed that one of Rylan's toy baskets was turned upside down. I was pretty sure that I didn't need to step over it when we left the room. He must have been up walking around playing and then headed back into his bed to sleep. This is despite having the baby monitor turned up as high as it can go. We brushed it off as a random occurance and went to bed. A few hours later I woke up for whatever reason and noticed Rylan sleeping in the middle of the room on the floor. I decided that I would let him sleep on the floor as he was clearly passed out. Some time later I woke back up, again for no apparent reason, and I noticed Rylan this time sleeping on the floor near the door. This time I picked him up and placed him back into bed. He slept through the rest of the night.

I am curious to see if he is really sleep walking already at 17 months or just waking up and wanting to play. My mother tells me that I was sleep walking around 2 years old so it does not seem unlikely. Eating chocolate within 5 hours or so of sleep will most likely cause me to sleep walk, can Rylan have something similar? We recall giving him a cookie a few hours prior to sleeping so maybe he caught my problem. I get to now experience what my parents and now my wife do. I have always wondered what a sleep walking person looked like. While I hope Rylan doesn't have it as bad as I do, I look forward to helping him with the issue.

We have noticed that Rylan has also been whining in his sleep more lately. It seems that his imagination is in high gear and he must be having bad dreams. What could Rylan be having bad dreams about? Going to school without a diaper? Getting told no when he tries to do something bad? This could get interesting.