Bedtime Adventures

We decided awhile ago that with a baby coming, we'd like to move Tyler out of his crib soon so we can buy him a big bed instead of another crib. We were planning on looking at new beds right after Christmas. But apparently, Tyler didn't really agree with our plan and started climbing out of his crib a few weeks ago. Thankfully he never really got hurt. He bumped his chin on the way down once, but other than that he's a pretty brilliant little climber. The first time he did it was in the morning when he woke up. He woke up a little early and I still wanted to take a shower, so I gave him some books and left the door open a crack. When I was finished he was still really content so I decided to quick get a couple of things done while I could. But then I started hearing his door. And as I stood looking down the hall and thinking, Can he really reach his door from his bed?, he opened the door and walked out with a very proud little grin on his face. It was hilarious. We had to wait a couple of days to convert the crib to a toddler bed, because Carl had things going on in the evenings and I would have just broken something. It was a little hard to sleep or get anything done knowing he could just climb out! I went in to get him after his nap one day and he was just sitting on top of the railing of his crib with one leg on each side. He is so dangerous!

Finally we had a chance to make it into a big boy bed. He was so excited!

 

Since this wasn't exactly our plan, we didn't have time to find a gaurd rail, but it's pretty low to the ground and we put pillows next to it just in case. He didn't fall out the first night, but we did find him like this when we went to check on him.

 



He was so proud of himself in the morning when he woke up. He didn't even get out of bed on his own. He waited for us to come in and get him!

He has rolled out a couple of times since then, but the pillows padded his fall and he didn't even wake up.

Those first few days were wonderful. Amazing. I couldn't believe how great he was doing! But I had been warned by people that their kids did well at first and then not so much after awhile. So I was really holding my breath, hoping that he would continue to do that well. He did not.

I don't have a picture of his nap on day 3, but it looked very similar to nap #4. And 5, and 6, and 7 and every day since, and possibly what it will look like for the rest of my life?

 

As you can see, by day 19, the only thing that has improved is his ability to get into mischief more quietly!

 



He finds things to stand on and turns on the lights, empties his dresser drawers, pulls apart all of his socks, and pulls every book off his shelf. We put baby locks on his closet, so he can't get in there anymore, and we unhooked his lamp from the wall switch so he can't turn that on either.I have tried everything! I've gone in everytime I've heard him get out of bed, I've completely ignored the noises and sat in the living room stressing out and hoping he runs himself to sleep, and I've tried sitting in there with him until he falls asleep. That is apparently the only way he naps now. At night it took about a week and a half for him to ever get out of bed, but now he also does this at bedtime. Thankfully at night, he usually just shoves books under the door for awhile and then gets in bed and goes to sleep. But naps are ridiculous.

So, our little switch from a crib to a bed has been less than fabulous. He used to sleep from 8-8 and nap from 1-4. Now he doesn't fall asleep until closer to 9, is up around 7, and only naps for 45 minutes to an hour! This was my biggest fear of this transition. Losing my amazing little sleeper. Any advice? I am taking any and all from anyone. :-)

He will still be getting a real bed, (with a gaurd rail) in January. So I don't know if that will help or hurt things. But I feel like it can't get a lot worse. Right?...

I do have to say though, that he is still as adorable as ever. Yesterday he actually fell asleep right away and I went in to see if it was really true. And I could smell right away that he had a poopy diaper. And he had gone into his dresser, pulled out one of his cloth diapers and layed it out to be changed before he went to sleep. So sweet! And so sad that he had to fall asleep that way!