Go To Bed, Sleepy Head

*This is not a current picture. Obviously.

So, anyone who saw my facebook status the other day knows that we've been having sleep troubles 'round these parts. 
First there's the guest issue. We have him currently in the living room because he's related to his Grandma and likes warmer weather. I, however, cannot sleep at any temperature above 75 degrees fahrenheit. Even that's pushing it. So he's out in the living room which means guests and family are gently (and sometimes not-so-gently) shoved out on their butts come bedtime. This makes me feel bad, like I'm inconveniencing people and I don't like doing that.
Then there's the problem where Rodrigo here would wake up every 2-4 hours at night for 10 hours, while napping only about 3 times for roughly 30 minutes each, thus racking up only about 11 1/2 - 12 hours of sleep total.
Even on the nights when he'd get in 6 straight hours, he's got Mama so trained that she'd wake up at the regular intervals regardless of whether or not he got up.

You see my problem.

So we've tried several things: rice cereal for dinner, total darkness, crying it out, earlier/later bedtime, etc. All worked in their own way, but nothing has really seemed to stick and keep him down.
We started playing with the idea of ambient noise. Pooh and I are both partial to rain sounds (hey, if we've gotta hear it we're gonna like it) and we found the perfect track...
... which costs $6. Boo.
Then we find one that has a calm, steady rain and distant thunder (one of my favorite types of weather) that was significantly cheaper. We happened to have an Amazon Mp3 credit. Awesome, right? Well the trick was seeing if the thunder would be just right to wake him up. 
So I buy it, sync it, and plug it in as he's doing his "I'm sooo tired but I'm still sooo angry that I'm going to huff and puff and blow your house in," and as soon as it starts playing he's out! He's asleep! He even slept through a stray draft blowing the door shut! I don't know if this is all just coincidence or not, and we've yet to see if this'll lull the monster through the night, but he hasn't woken up (stirred, not shaken) and it's looking good for the long haul!

In a nutshell:

Best $0.89 purchase I didn't actually have to pay for.