Yes. That is Nathan, out of his crib and into his toddler ("big boy") bed. It all started about two weeks ago. We've spent the last two weeks in the U.P. and were staying at my parents' house. At night, Nathan, who up until that point had only slept in his crib, slept in a Pack-N'-Play, since he was used to having "walls" around him. The first night was easy. We had been in the car all day and were exhausted. He fell right to sleep. However, by the second night there, he had discovered that the "walls" were no match for him. I put him to bed the second night and joining my parents in the living room. Within five minutes I heard one of the bedroom doors open. I just thought it was Tyler coming back out so I didn't jump out of my chair right away. Then came the sound of tiny little footsteps. Hmmm, those are kind of small, even for Tyler, I thought. And then, there he was. Little Nathan with the biggest smile on his face. I don't think he had ever felt more proud of himself. Oh Boy. At least that's what I said out loud.
And there it began. I spent the next two weeks trying everything I could to keep him in the Pack-N'-Play. Everything. One day, I spent three hours with him trying to get him to take a nap, with no success. He didn't nap that day, as well as two other days while we were there. Once he was asleep, he was fine. But he had to wear himself (and me!) down to complete exhaustion before he would finally collapse in his bed.
To him, it was all a big game. Especially with me. My mom could do a pretty fair job getting him down, and Mike could do even better. But with me, he had way too much fun. Saying "I see you!" every time he opened the door. Waiting for me to put him back in his bed and then running and jumping back in by himself. Frustrating and exhausting. Those are the only words I have for that part of my last two weeks.
I was still holding out some form of hope though. He had never tried to climb out of his crib at home, and it was quite a bit taller than the Pack-N'-Play, so I thought if I could make it through those two weeks and get back home, he'd be back to sleeping in his crib, and I'd go back to being able to shower in the morning before he woke up.
WRONG. On our first night back home, I was cautiously optimistic. I set him down in his crib, expecting him to pop back up like a prarie dog, laugh, and try to climb out. Instead he grabbed his blanket, curled up, stuck his thumb in his mouth and settled in. I checked on him a few minutes later and he was asleep. Whew! Maybe I got lucky after all...
The next morning - yesterday morning - I heard him through the baby monitor. "Get out of bed" he said. Tyler was already upstairs with me, so I slowly got motivated and ready to get him up. Well, I guess I didn't move fast enough because just a few minutes after he first woke up, I heard the sound of a creaking door through the monitor. Since his is the only door in the house that creaks, I knew exactly what had just happened. By the time I got to the top of the stairs, there was little Nathan waiting for me.
Yep. Right then I knew that the crib had to go. It made me sad, not only because it means my little boy is growing up, but when am I ever going to shower again????
So reluctantly, yesterday afternoon Mike and I wheeled the crib out of his room and I replaced it with the toddler bed, which I had recently moved out into the garage with the hope of storing it out there until at least January. No such luck.
There is another element to this story. Not only did we give up the crib yesterday, but Nathan has also decided over the last few weeks that his afternoon naps are optional. He's always been one to take or leave his nap, unlike his big brother who no one wants to be around unless he sleeps for at least an hour in the afternoon. If Nathan skipped his nap, which he rarely did, it was no big deal. Now, and this started happening once or twice a week even before we went on vacation, he's decided for the most part that he doesn't want to nap anymore. And he has had more control over that over the last few weeks since he could climb out of his bed whenever he didn't want to be there. And he retains that control now that he's in his big boy bed.
When I started this post, I had finally convinced Nathan to stay in his room (after spending 20 minutes putting him back in his bed and closing the door) though he was playing with one of his noisy toys. Now that I'm at this point in the post, the noise has stopped and I think he might finally be asleep. Whew!
Last night - his first night in his "big boy bed"- went GREAT. I gave him his "five minutes," something I started with Tyler about a year ago, told him that it was time for him to go to sleep, and closed the door. He called for me two or three times, but he never got out of bed, and in fact he went right to sleep. Even more surprising is that he slept all the way through to just after 7:00 this morning without getting out of his bed once. YES!! I know that not all nights will be that easy, but we're off to a great start so far.
Now if I can only figure out a way to hang on to those naps for at least another 6 months. HE may be ready to give them up, but I'm NOT!!
No comments:
Post a Comment