Last weekend we visited the Campbell grandparents in Iowa for Christmas (more on that in a prettier, more picture-filled post), and as expected, Holden had some trouble sleeping on the second night there. This has been a trend for the Short Stranger for months now--going back at least to our summer vacation in TN. Only rarely do we stay anywhere for longer than 2 nights, but when we do, he seems okay on Night Three. So from now on I deem this phenomenon "second night syndrome"--and will mentally prepare myself for a rough second night.
It makes sense, right? After traveling, he's usually pretty exhausted on the first night, so even though he may have trouble going to sleep, once he's out, he's good until morning. But on night two he's not quite as exhausted, he's in a strange place, in the same room as his parents, AND he's been busy exploring it all day. Heck, it's not like I sleep much better.
Usually when he wakes up on these nights, it takes us a while but we can get him back to bed after about 30-60 minutes of singing, story-reading, or (before age 1) nursing. This time we were so fearful that the nearby aunt and uncle could hear him use his newly-minted angry-screaming-"no no"-voice that we ended up letting him fall asleep on us. Not the first time, and probably not the last. Looking forward to the age when we can "use our words," as the daycare teachers say, to get over the second night hump.
Oh, and in case your wondering--he had no trouble sleeping when we returned home. Never does. And that's why it's simply the "second night syndrome."
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