From Crib to Toddler Bed

Ok, so we have been working on transitioning our son, Pierce, into his toddler bed.  We've had the toddler bed for a couple of months now, but figured he might not be ready to leave his crib for the cool bed that his daddy put together just yet.  Therefore, I've put it off for a couple of months.  With the impending arrival of our new son at the end of September, we were hoping that we would be able to use Pierce's crib for the new nursery and not have to buy a new one.  But, I'm not one to push my son to do something to suit my own selfish needs, so if I have to buy a new crib, then we will.

I've been bracing myself for the battle of trying to get him to sleep in his big boy bed.  I've dreamt of all the horror stories that I've heard: the kicking, the screaming, the getting out of the bed constantly, the drop, kick, and roll tantrum, the crying, etc...  I don't know about other people, but I'm not one who likes to listen to their child cry and throw tantrums--though, it is amusing at times to watch him throw himself onto the floor and kick like a fish out of water.  Anyways, I thought to myself, "This is going to be one long night."  Not to mention that being 6 months pregnant doesn't exactly give me the patience or the desire to want to chase a 20-month-old all over the place in order to get him back inside his bed.

Night One:  My husband and I put Pierce into his bed.  He gets up and turns on the humidifier, crawls back into bed, gets up again, and grabs his stuffed teddy bear, and crawls back into bed.  Then, he sits up and begins the ever soothing technique of thumb in mouth.  I lay him down and tell him, "It's night-night time."  He settles in and 5 minutes later he is out.  He sleeps there all night.......until 6:30 in the morning.

Night Two:  Okay, so the first night wasn't so bad, he must be teasing me and saving it for tonight.  It's 8:15 and I take him up to bed and ready him for the rest of the night.  I lay him down and 15 minutes later he is zonked.  Wow, can it really be true?  Is he going to make this easy on his back-aching mama??  He sleeps there all night, until about 6:15 in the morning.  I must admit, these early morning wake-up calls are starting to get to me while I'm on summer vacation.  But, he's so darn cute, I deal-----like I have a choice. =)

Night Three:  My husband is at the Willie Nelson concert with some friends, so I'm on my own tonight.  Not that it matters since he's made the first two nights easy, right?  Yep, that's about it.  I put him to bed and I lay down on the floor next to his bed.  He stirs and talks, and plays with the curtain with his foot.  He actually finds this latter activity quite amusing for some reason because he keeps cracking up as he moves the curtain.  I just lay there and eventually hear the soothing sound of the thumb being sucked.  I know it's a matter of minutes now.  Within about 2 minutes I hear nothing.  I lift my head up of the ground and he is completely passed out on his back, arms and legs spread wide open.  He must be thinking that this will help him to dream about flying.

Around 12:00 I hear him stirring a bit and then all is quiet.  I get up about 20 minutes later because it's hot as Hades up in this place and I decide to check on him.  There he is sprawled out on the floor--all that flying must've got him so excited that he thought he was a Blue Angel and turned upside down and rolled right off his bed.  So, I pick him up, put him back in his bed, and he's back to dreaming about being a pilot.

Night Four:  He is making this way too easy.  Fifteen minutes after putting him in his bed, he's passed out.  Though, he did actually sleep until almost 8:00 this morning.  I am one happy mom at this point.