Holy No Effing Sleep

We had an incident last night. It all started around 7:30 when we started getting ready for bed. It's been rather freaking hot here this week, up in the high 80s during the day, and we haven't turned the A/C on yet because we can survive without it we're cheap. It's not so bad in the house at night, but still warm. Toddler Charlie refuses to sleep without pajamas. Actually, he refuses to do anything without clothes on. I'm convinced it's because he's inherited my OCD (says the woman who absolutely cannot sleep without white cotton socks on), but it's probably just a toddler stubbornness issue. Anyway, the only pajama bottoms that he has are heavy flannel pants, and I didn't want him to wear them because of the heat and some diaper issues we've been battling lately. The more circulation the better, but he doesn't seem to understand that.

So we put him down in the crib (sans pants) by 7:45 and he screamed and screamed and screamed. I kept thinking that he would give up and go to bed, but he didn't. Finally, around 8:30, I went in and put his pants on. He went back to sleep.

3:20AM (two hours before my alarm goes off) I hear him starting to whine. "Feet, hot, hot, cup, up, up, FEET!" I let him whine for a few minutes, hoping he would just turn back over and go to sleep, but he didn't, and the whines turned into full-blown screaming. I went in to see what was going on and he was standing up in the crib (and you know that means a major meltdown is imminent) yelling at the door. "Hot! Feet!"

Oh, do you want me to take your socks off? "No!No!No!" Well, do you want me to take your pajamas off? "No! Hot! No!" Ok, well if you'd try sleeping out from under your blanket that might help. "NO! Kitty! Up! Up! Up!"

Then I broke the cardinal rule of night-time awakenings. I took him out of the crib. After that it was all over, and there was no way that I was getting back in my own bed peacefully. I tried sitting with him in the chair, hoping he would fall asleep, but he just kept going. Then we had to go to the bathroom to fill up his water cup, and as soon as I opened his door he bolted down the hallway. "HI! HI! Hi dad, hi kitty! HI!" So now we were all up. Husband Charlie went back to sleep, I took Mr. Sunshine back to his room, where he raced around like he had a can of red bull in his sippy. I kept trying to get him to lay down, but he would just cover me with the blanket, give me his kitty, pat my back, and run away. Every time I tried putting him in the crib he shrieked and flailed. Nice gash on my nose to prove it.

I think we're done with the crib. If he wants to get up and play at 3:30 in the morning then that's his prerogative, but I don't see why I should have to suffer because of it. What do you think? Valid solution to our problem?