Last night marked Collin's 2nd night in his "big boy bed". I figured he is getting old enough to tackle some of those transitions from babyhood. Since I was too chicken to take away his pacifiers (he has to sleep with one in his mouth and one in his hand) and I'm still scarred from potty training Brynn, I figured we would start by moving him from his crib into the twin bed that is in his room. Oh yeah, plus I caught him trying to climb out of his crib the two previous nights. I was/am pretty scared of this transition, because he is a notoriously bad sleeper. He didn't start sleeping through the night regularly until he was 18-24 months old, and it isn't uncommon for him to wake up during the night even now.
On Friday, I had decided that was the big day, so I put a rail on the side of the bed, and arranged all his blankets, pillows, and stuffed dogs on it. We talked all day about how big he was now, and how exciting it was to move to the big boy bed. When I put him in bed that night, he didn't even cry. I waited for the freak out, but it never came. Yeah! Once during the night, he woke up crying, but it was quickly solved when Dave found his pacifiers wedged between the bed and the wall. The next morning he even slept in late. Huge sigh of relief. Yesterday he decided he wanted to take his nap in his big boy bed. As he put his head on the pillow and closed his eyes, I was thinking how easy this all was. After half an hour of peace and quiet in the house, I went to go check on my sleepy little angel. Except the bed was empty. That's when I saw him sitting in the dark looking at one of the books he had piled around him. He had one paci in his mouth and the other safely nearby. I had been fooled. So, needless to say, he did not get a nap yesterday. Last night, I was thinking he would be so tired that he would probably fall asleep before he even got to his bed. Nope. He decided he didn't like the big boy bed, and threw several fits to prove it. At 10pm, we just put the gate up in his doorway, and let him cry it out for awhile. After the screaming had gone on for quite awhile, and turned into him crying out "Mama! Mama!", I told him I would lay next to him for a minute if he got in his bed. Two minutes of that and he was out. He woke up again during the night, and I had to lay next to him for a few minutes, but that was it. We'll have to see how tonite goes (said while only slightly shaking in fear)...
So, any suggestions or advice on the situation? My kids are so different from each other, that I feel like I'm doing this for the first time. Brynn was always so scared to get out of her bed (and usually still is until morning), that it was a fairly easy milestone for her.
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2 comments:
No advice here. We just turned the lock around on their door handle and went for it. Their room is completely empty except for their beds, a couple of books and a doll for each of them. I don't mind if they look at books for a while and figure they'll fall asleep once they get tired enough or can't see anymore. The black-out curtains have helped a bit with the sunlight problem for naptime.
The first few nights they'd cry for a while but now they don't hardly whimper and usually sleep through the night.
Sounds like you're doing everything! Good luck!! Transitioning is hard!
It sounds like it's going great! We had to turn the lock around on Eli's room too because he wouldn't stay in bed. I've thought about Sadie moving to a bed but I think I'll wait until she tries to climb out as well. Go Collin!
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