Category Archives: kiddo

public transportation | aka. we rode the bus

I’ve been wanting to take T on a short little bus trip for a while now. There’s a stop just a few minutes from our house, but I never really felt like walking over there in the snow or rain, and whenever it’s been nice out, we’ve had other things to occupy our time. Plus it’s a lot easier to just jump on the bike (or into the trailer) and go than stand around waiting on the bus.

Our town has a great bus system, thanks in large part to the local university. I took the bus all the time as a student, but as a graduate, I’d almost forgotten it existed. T has reminded me (daily) that there are busses in town though, so I thought we should plan a ride sometime.

We got our opportunity on Tuesday (during a brief flirt with spring, before the snow piled on again). I made plans to meet a friend at the mall (not that either of us wanted to go to the mall, but when you need clothes and you’ve tried everywhere else in town…) and I had planned on biking there. The mall is only about a mile away from our house, so it wouldn’t have been a big deal to bike there under normal circumstances. However, I had biked already that morning, and we were having such a windy day that I was completely wiped out. I didn’t think it was a smart idea for me to ride again that day, even a short distance.

So, I checked out the schedule, and when T was up from his nap we made our way to the bus stop. He was so excited! I think he wasn’t sure that we were really going to get on the bus when it stopped. I could see his eyes get big when the bus stopped, but he was immediately wary of how big a bus really is and was a little timid when I told him we were going to get on. But once we were on he didn’t seem to notice and loved the ride.

The ride back was even better because I made sure to get him a window seat. He’s been into cars and trucks and wanting to know the name of every single thing that drives by our house, so he enjoyed being able to see everything for once. I think we’ll have to make bus trips a regular thing this summer.

big bed | part 4 | when in doubt, throw a bunch of money at the problem

2 Replies

We had a good thing going for a while. We would read a few books in bed, say good night, and that be that. Occasionally T would talk to himself a little before finally going to sleep, but he’d usually be asleep pretty quickly and he’d sleep all night with no problems. Nap time has always been a bit of a struggle, but really once he got used to the bed we didn’t have too many problems.

However, for a long while we fought every night to keep him in bed. We put him to bed and before we’d get down the hall he’d be up by his door. So we put him back to bed. Sometimes we’ve just waited till he finally falls asleep and move him, and sometimes we try to put him back before he’s totally asleep.

It’s a very pitiful thing when you think about it. I don’t want my kid to feel like I’m putting him in jail or anything, but we all need sleep at some point.

I wouldn’t have a problem with him simply sleeping on the floor, because it’s probably just a phase that I’m sure he’ll grow out of. The problem is that he wedges himself in front of the door, making it impossible to open the door without waking him. I’m more concerned about how long it takes to get him up when he’s like that. In case of an emergency, I’d rather be able to grab him quickly if we need to.

Another problem we’ve been having is early wake ups and trouble napping. The napping problem is similar to the bed time problem where he’d rather sleep by the door than his bed. Paul’s been getting up with him in the mornings and getting him breakfast, which I very much appreciate (because he usually gives me an extra hour to sleep). However, 6:30 is about the earliest wake up call we can take. Some mornings he’s woken up at 4:30 or 5:30 though. At 4:30 it’s still dark enough to convince him it’s still bed time, but 5:30 is too bright for that. So instead he sits by his door and bangs on it until someone comes and gets him.

So, I did a bit of googling to find some advice on getting T to stay in his bed. The results were half “let him sleep on the floor; he’ll grow out of it” and half “it’s appalling and mean to allow that and it creates bad habits; put him back in his bed to reinforce that his bed is where he’s supposed to sleep”. Not the most helpful, but I was able to find some decent tips that I was willing to try.

1. Get some really cool sheets that he’s into to entice him back to the bed. T’s really into cars and trucks, so I found some sheets with construction trucks on them. He’s been going on about “ment trucks” (cement trucks) ever since. (However, as much as I love Target, why oh why do generic sheets have to cost $30?)

2. He may be sleeping by the door because he’s scared and he can see the light under the door. We tried two things in order to conquer this. First we moved his bed so it’s now directly across from the door and he can see the door better from the bed. Secondly I bought a night-light. I don’t know what the deal is with night lights these days, but when I was a kid a night-light was a tiny thing that plugged into the wall and you turned it on at night and off in the morning. Cost two bucks. Now there’s a whole range of fashionable lights that are at least $10 a pop. For a night-light. But at this point, anything that lures T back to his bed is great. So we started with one that projects an image (safari animals) on the ceiling. I have a few problems with these lights. First, you’re not supposed to look directly at the LED bulb. Good luck keeping a toddler from doing that. Second, there is no timer, so it’s on all night unless you unplug it. Ultimately T had more trouble going back to sleep in the middle of the night because of it. And third, but probably not a huge deal, safari animals could possibly be scary. These weren’t cartoons, and I’m pretty sure I’d need a diaper change too if I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a rhino on my ceiling. I ended up returning the thing after one night of trying to convince him to stay in bed at 2am. I almost ordered one of those turtle night lights that projects the stars on the ceiling. It seems like a less frightening thing to display on your ceiling at night and they shut off after 45 minutes. However, they’re at least $25 and that seemed like a lot to spend on a night-light.

3. If he’s going to sleep by the door, at least make him comfortable. There’s not a whole lot we can do without waking him up after he falls asleep by the door. But I did move the rug in front of the door, so it’s a little softer there. I’ve considered getting a camp pad, because we need one anyway, but I think he’d probably play with it. I’m not sure if it’s worth training him to use that now on top of everything or just to wait until summer when we’re traveling. Either way, that’s another $30.

4. Get really great curtains to darken the room. Totally the opposite of getting him a night-light and much more expensive. However, I wanted to change the curtains in his room anyway and I figured it would help during nap time too. With the way the windows in our house are set up, there’s no way to put up curtains without making custom curtain rods. Unfortunately that makes the whole thing well over $100, which is more than I want to spend on curtains, but I guess they’re done now and will never need to be changed.

5. Do the super nanny sleep separation technique and stay in the room until he falls asleep. I’m generally opposed to this, because it didn’t work for us before at nap time, but it might be easier than running back to his room every five seconds. Actually, what’s the difference? (And it’s free!!)

The results have been mostly positive. After two nights of doing the sleep separation technique, darker curtains, and totally awesome sheets he seems to be back on track. Finally he’s slept through the night again, in his bed, and hasn’t woken us up until 6:00 at the earliest. (Oh by the way, every night since just before Easter he would wake up coughing and need some water and a diaper change. So frustrating. And I always seem to have trouble falling back asleep for hours afterward. That also has stopped since we made these changes.)

Nap time is a whole different situation. It seems there is a delicate balance between getting him in bed at the right time, planning enough time before hand to run around, and not letting him fall asleep in the car or bike trailer before hand. Even in a darker room he still manages to find toys to play with and crawls out of bed to sleep by the door. I’ve had the best luck letting him sleep by the door for about 15 minutes or so and then moving him to his bed. I have to wake him up to do it, but he’s usually groggy enough to go back to sleep on his own.

For now I’m hopeful that we’ll figure out a solution to the napping situation. I’m also just grateful that we seem to have gotten back on track with bed time. I just hope I’m not putting my foot in my mouth by posting this!

the stats | 18 months

2 Replies

It’s been a long time since I updated T’s stats. A lot has changed in the past three months!

Height/Weight:

At his 18 month appointment, T was 25 lbs, 9 oz and just a little over 33″ tall. He, like I think most toddlers his age, had a bit of a growth spurt. He’s thinned out a bit and isn’t as chunky as he was when he was just a year old. It’s been nice because stuff like pants were quite a pain to button there for a while. I went ahead and packed away all his 18 month clothes. There were a few pants and things we were hanging on to because they fit him better in disposable diapers than 2T things. Now almost all his 2T clothes fit regardless of what diaper we put him in. We’re still sticking with cloth diapers, but occasionally I’ll have a lazy day and use disposables.

Teeth:

I don’t remember exactly how many teeth he had the last time I updated his stats, but he’s finally to the point where he has more teeth (11) than he needs (5). The most recent one to appear is on the bottom right next to the middle two. It’s pair on the other side still hasn’t poked through, so he looks a bit silly with three teeth on the bottom.

Food:

There isn’t a whole lot to talk about in regards to food. He still will eat most anything, except for tomatoes and potatoes. Most days he will eat a lot, but every few days he doesn’t want to eat anything. Occasionally he doesn’t want to feed himself, and we’ve even started resorting to using the old “here comes the train” technique to get him to eat more.

Talking/Signs:

Sign language has almost completely stopped. At least, he’s stopped learning new signs for the most part. However, he’s replaced most of his signs with talking! He went from saying a very small handful of words to learning at lest one new word a day in about a week. His primary language is English, but there are a few words in German and Spanish that he’s picked up on. Obviously, he can’t pronounce every word exactly, but here’s a very long list of the words he recognizes and will repeat back to us.

English: down, bath, nap, up, car, diaper, out, open, bye-bye, coat, cold, brr, bubble, house, gross, nose, snow, no, yes, work, remote, wet, door, bounce, stop, tomorrow, Monday, pants, home, drip, train, chair, cooperate, eye, dip, mitten, quiet, truck, tracks, done, play, gone, dirty, clean, run, rain, stroller, window, one, what, I love you, kiss, cut, climb, button, balloon, change, sleeping, broom, two, color, hat, knit, don’t, hi, clown, cabinet, there, brush teeth, towel, tool, hot, wipes, box, bag, phone, hand, blanket, bike, shirt, couch, arm, pajamas, dinosaur, help, bus, ambulance, fire truck, paint, train, plane, mail truck, mop, trash, gate, green, no way, socks, orange, brown, colors, shoes, rings, chest, drum, red, race car, get, later, ottoman, room, mama, papa, coco, grandma, Tobias, baby, Paul, Bobbie, name, moo, meow, giraffe, frog, mouse, roar, woof, baa, Pooh, Piglet, Owl, Rabbit, Eeyore, Kangaroo, Gopher, Tigger, cat, bear, fish, cheep, bird, dog, elephant, penguin, lion, animal, squirrel, cow, puppy, quack bowl, cracker, macaroni, onion, milk, banana, snack, cup, apple, compost, water, juice, hummus, spoon, eat, mango, corn, bean, lunch, toast, eggs, plate, grapes, peas, pasta, table, fridge, kitchen, avocado, pizza, strawberry

German: Kaka (poop), Buch (book), Gabel (fork), Bauch (belly, usually uses in reference to his belly button), Müll (trash), Pipi (pee), Danke (thank you), Helm (helmet), Bitte (please), Kuh (cow), Oma (grandma), Opa (grandpa)

Spanish: caca (poop), pipí (pee), gato (cat), mano (hand), coches (cars), oso (bear), tambor (drum), pan (bread), pie (foot), baño (bathroom), zapatos (shoes), leche (milk), dámelo (give it to me), toma (take it), camión (truck), cama (bed)

I won’t write out all the signs he knows, since he doesn’t do them much anymore. The few he’s learned to do since the last update are: taco, bread, clean up, banana, water, please, thank you, baby, nap, later, egg, cracker, bike, and gorilla.

Activities/Favorites:

His three favorite things that he asks for all day long are 1) to play with his friend, Coco, 2) to get out the trains, and 3) his cars and trucks. Every day he asks if he will get to see Coco. That’s probably the only reason he knows the words “tomorrow” and “Monday”, because those are usually my answers on days we don’t get to see her. He recently even named a stuffed puppy “Coco”. He’s totally obsessed with her and it’s very cute.

Our days are mostly organized around whether we get to see Coco and when he can get his train set out. “Tins” are his favorite toys at the moment. Whenever we’re downtown we have to stop at the train tracks and watch the trains go by. It’s very disappointing if we don’t get to see a train.

One thing he loves to do with his cars and trucks is play “bye-bye go go”. This seems to be a game he made up on his own. He will line his cars up on the ottoman or a table, says “bye-bye go go” or “bye-bye cars”, and pushes them off the other side. He can spend a decent amount of time doing that.

Besides that he’s got a few other things he’s been getting into lately. He learned to climb up on the couch by himself, so we now have to be careful about leaving him alone in the living room. He knows how to climb down, but sometimes he gets a bit too excited and forgets to hold on. He also learned how to say “run” and what running is (he knew how, but he just hadn’t put the two together), so occasionally he’ll “run” around the house. It’s not my favorite thing when he runs on the couch :( He also, recently started walking on his tippy toes, which is very cute. He loves to dump his water out of his sippy cup, which I hate and usually try to stop. However, he started dripping it into small bowls and drinking out of the bowl. I would prefer that he didn’t make a mess doing it, but he’s using his imagination, so I’m learning to deal with the mess. Randomly, he will decide he’s done with certain toys, say “done”, and start packing things up. I guess my anal need to have his toys picked up when he’s not playing with them has paid off.

He and Tobias are getting along better now too. T hardly pulls his tail anymore, which makes Tobias happier and we haven’t had many scratching incidents lately. If Tobias does scratch or bite him it’s never very hard (just a warning nip), T will come to us and show us his arm. Usually a kiss is enough to make everything better. Sometimes he’ll go up to Tobias and pretend that he’s a drum. For a while there I thought he was saying “dumb Tobias” and I couldn’t figure out where he picked that one up.

And as far as other stuff goes, he has no interest in potty training. I recently bought a seat that attaches to a regular toilet, but he doesn’t want anything to do with it. I’m sure it’s a bit intimidating for him. Eventually, I plan on getting him a small potty, but for the time being I just haven’t gotten around to it. Potty training is the one thing I’m not in a huge hurry to push.

Getting him into his big bed was more important to me when it came down to it. That has been going well for the most part. Some days he won’t nap, but that was about the same in his crib. And he’s stopped refusing to kiss me good night! He still shoves me away occasionally, but he’s also started saying “one more” to get me to give him another kiss. He’s totally got me wrapped around his finger on that one!

Well, I think that’s about it for now!

t’s first egg hunt

2 Replies

We had a pretty low-key Easter this year because T has been sick the past few days. My sisters came to visit on Saturday, and on Sunday we had a little egg hunt. It took him a few tries to understand the concept of picking up the eggs and putting them into his basket, but once he got the hang of it, he enjoyed collecting the eggs. He also enjoyed the surprises inside the eggs, and his one piece of chocolate. Is it mean of me to deny him chocolate on Easter? I guess I figure he’s got years and years ahead of him to indulge in chocolate, so I’m going to enjoy the few years (or year?) I have where he’ll actually take my “only one” as the rule :) Anyway, here’s an overload of pictures!

And yes, we still have patches of snow on our lawn :(

big bed part 3: no more kisses

1 Reply

So, here’s something I wasn’t anticipating when we moved T to a bed: big kids don’t like to give their mamas kisses.

I don’t know where he picked up this concept, because we don’t hang out with anyone over the age of 2. But I’m pretty sad about it.

It used to be that we would sit in the rocking chair and read before bed and after the last book I’d ask him for a hug and a kiss and he’d have no problem giving them up. But now we can’t even read the final book because as soon as he sees it he says, “nap” and climbs off our laps to run to bed. He’s so excited about taking a “nap” that he’s forgotten about me completely.

And I don’t want to complain, because I’m so, so, so grateful that the bed situation has resolved itself and that he’s actually excited to go to bed. But that hug and kiss were more for me than for him. Now he actually tells me to stop and pushes me away! Of course I ignore him because I am his mother and I will kiss him until the day I die, but it is a little hurtful to hear.

I think I’ll try reading to him in bed instead of the rocking chair. We thought we wouldn’t shake up his routine too much when he started liking the bed again, just in case it was a fleeting thing, so we haven’t tried reading in bed too much.

I guess it’s my own fault for wanting one part of him to grow up, but expecting the rest of him to remain my baby. The next one is staying in the crib until college ;)

attentiveness

2 Replies

T’s been talking a lot lately. He repeats everything we say. Most of that is cute, but some of it isn’t so cute (well, OK, that one was kind of cute). I can’t take all the credit for his sudden interest in talking either. I think his grandparents had a lot to do with it.

Way before I was pregnant with T, I read Nurture Shock. I really haven’t read that many parenting books, but this one seemed different and interesting. The part I remember the best (and I’ve reread the book a few times since) was the part on language. From the chapter, I gathered that the best way to get your child to talk more is to be attentive and listen to your child.

I was trying to be attentive with T as much as I could. However, I couldn’t spend my entire day following him around asking him what he was thinking all day long. Not only did I have other things I needed (and wanted) to do, but I would have gone crazy doing that.

And I’m pretty sure speaking German with T was hurting us. It wasn’t so much that he was being overloaded by a foreign language, but more that I was being overloaded and couldn’t keep a conversation going. I realized that I was spending most of my day talking to T, and not with him. I wasn’t encouraging him to talk back to me, but simply handing out phrases here and there and expecting him to just start talking.

The turning point was when Paul and I left T with Paul’s parents for the week while we were on our cruise. When we came home, the list of words he could say doubled within a week. I believe it’s because they had that week to devote to T’s every whim. It’s the simple differences, like how they read a book to him. Most of the time I read a book to him, but I don’t ask him too many questions about the book, so we just read the book and move on to the next activity. Paul’s parents engage T in the book. I left a few sign language books around so they could use them as reference books since T was primarily signing before we left. He picked up the sign for “nap/sleep” while we were away, and I’m pretty sure it’s due to how Paul’s parents were reading those books to him. At least, I don’t think they had set our to teach him new signs.

Since then, I’ve been trying to be even more attentive and engaging when I talk to T. I explain a lot more than I used to. When I read to him I ask him questions throughout the book. He picks up on new words every day (one of his favorite being “compost”). It’s amazing how making just a small change in how we do things has made such an impact.

big bed part 2: my kid constantly amazes (and frustrates) me

2 Replies

I wrote this post, and rewrote this post at least five times. I’ve had 12 different titles. I don’t even know where to begin anymore. It’s going to be a long post, that I do know. And I apologize for the blurry pictures.

I knew nap time would be our biggest challenge in transitioning T to a bigger bed. He’s a great sleeper, but even in his crib, nap time can be a struggle. Some days he will play for an hour or more before finally falling asleep. I knew the freedom of the big bed would cause some extra challenges. The first day he did not nap. I just wanted to see how it would go, so I put him to bed and left the room like I normally would if he were in his crib. He played around and we put him back to bed a number of times before I decided to try taking a nap with him. Eventually, I gave in and let him tear his room apart. It wasn’t so much that I had given up for the day, but that I wanted to know what distracted him so I could get it out of his reach in the future. The next day I tried a different strategy. I told him he needed to have “quiet time”, put things I didn’t want him playing with out of his reach, and left. I knew he was up shortly after I left his room and after about 15 minutes I put him back to bed. After 10 minutes of repeatedly putting him back to bed, he finally stayed there. I stayed in his room for another 10 minutes before I decided to leave and grab my phone. Of course, he got out of bed while I was out. I went back in, put him back in bed for probably the 10th time, and sat there until he fell asleep at 2:00 (the time I had decided we’d quit this whole thing and start again the next day, and a full 2 hours after I started). At first I was against staying in his room with him because he isn’t used to me being there. However, on Tuesday when I sat on his floor until he fell asleep (this is one of the methods Super Nanny suggests, although I’m sure I didn’t follow her rules exactly), I was surprised and very hopeful that this could work.

Last Wednesday is when it all fell apart. At nap time I decided to stay in his room right from the start. Every time he crawled out of bed I put him back. I did this for an hour before I decided that it was day three of me not getting a nap, and put him in his crib to nap. I’m sure I gave up too early, but I kept thinking how I only had to put him back to bed 10 or 11 times the day before. That was the really frustrating part, because I’ve always heard that it’s supposed to get easier each time, not harder. He played in his crib for a while and finally fell asleep, but only slept for about 45 minute

Putting him in his crib at nap time was the wrong thing to do, because he did not want to sleep in the big bed at bedtime that night. I put him down and everything seemed fine, but then we heard him knocking at his door. I put him back to bed and this time he lost it and came to his door crying. When I went in the third time he pointed to his crib, and when I put him in it he was asleep before I was out the door.

Nap time since we let him back in his crib has been hit or miss. It doesn’t matter if he’s in his bed or his crib; he might nap or he might not. There’s no consistency. Saturday night he insisted on sleeping in his bed, so that’s where we put him and he was fine. That was after a day of not napping.

On Sunday I thought I’d try ignoring him completely. He wanted to take a nap in his bed, so I tried putting him there and not putting him back to bed. I took a nap on the couch while he played quietly for about an hour, and finally fell asleep in his bed.

Monday, I tried putting him down for his nap a little early, because we had a busy afternoon ahead of us. I talked him through it as I always do, and he acted like he wanted to take a nap, but he didn’t. Tuesday, he didn’t even want to read and was asleep in 15 minutes.

Really, I’m fine with it if he wants to just have some “quiet time” in his room before going to sleep. If he decided to give up his nap I’d be OK with that too. I just don’t think he’s ready for that yet. I also know I can’t be in his room fighting him to stay in bed for hours at a time. I need a break from him too.

I will also say, that we probably sprung a lot of things on T all at once, which probably didn’t help. Bringing his bed into his room was a big change, and we had to rearrange his room to do so. We eventually took his changing table out of his room and moved the tipi into his room. It was necessary for us to do that because he was playing with his diapers too much, but I think he thought we were getting rid of all his things. Once he became accustomed to his changing table being in our bedroom he was suddenly more open to sleeping in his bed.

On a positive note, T amazes me so much! I think moving his changing table into our room actually helped too. Whenever we take him in there and sees our bed he says “mama, nap” and I think he started associating our bed with his bed. In the end moving to the big bed was his decision and I think that was the biggest accomplishment. Even if it is hit-or-miss most days.

t’s first haircut

1 Reply

On Saturday I cut T’s hair. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to. I love his curls, but they’re developing into a rat’s nest on the back of his head. I’m tired of combing the knots out every morning.

So, Saturday afternoon I sat him down to Milo and Otis (which he loved by the way) and grabbed the clippers. I’ve tried cutting Paul’s hair with scissors before, but that ended in a bad Flock of Seagulls thing, so I have more confidence with the clippers. I blame it on being left-handed.

I think I cut off 2 inches at the longest parts. I didn’t know his hair had gotten that long! I didn’t want it too short, so I used the 1″ setting (the longest setting). It seemed too short at first, and it’s still a bit scraggly in the back, but I think it’s growing on me :)

german hour

1 Reply

I haven’t written too much about speaking German with T. I started when he was 3 months-old. Paul had an extended leave from work and started back around that time. The first day was looong, but I stuck with it and was very happy when Paul came home and I had someone else to talk to (not a perk just because we speak English together).

It’s gotten better over time. I don’t have to look up as many words as I did in the beginning. There are a lot of things I’ve never said to him in English, so the German words or phrases feel the most natural.

But it’s exhausting. I didn’t grow up with any German exposure. I started learning German my sophomore year of college, and as much as I can hold my own in a conversation, I flounder just as often if not more. There’s a whole list of phrases and words that just won’t stick with me. My grammar is atrocious and I know I mispronounce a number of words.

I know the best thing to improve language skills is to keep with it and practice, practice, practice. But honestly, I’m tired. Between being pregnant and wracking my brain for the correct German word while chasing a very mobile and independent toddler around, I’m wiped out by lunch time. Something has to give.

For now, it’s German. I’m not going to keep pretending that I’m enjoying speaking to T all day long in German, because I’m not. I desperately want to, but even more than that, I want to be able to talk to my kid easily. He’s at the age where he’s starting to talk and a number of the words he wants to say are English words. Should I really force him to say “Auto” when “car” is much easier?

I’m not going to completely give up on German. We’re just not going to talk all day long anymore. For the time being, we’re sticking to afternoons, after T wakes up from his nap until Paul gets home from work. This will give me a few solid hours (depending on how long he naps that day) to focus on only speaking German with him. When Paul comes home I will switch back to English so he can focus more on Spanish with Paul.

My goal in speaking German to T is that he will grow up with an appreciation for other languages. I only took the two years of Spanish required of me to graduate high school and I didn’t have the best teachers. I still don’t really like Spanish all that much. I don’t want my kids to be scared to travel or intimidated to learn a new language. So, although his exposure is less than it was, he’s still getting something. And he’ll have a happier, less exhaused, mama too :)

big bed part 1: bedtime

1 Reply

It’s been two nights since we moved T out of his crib and into a big bed. It’s a bit early to do so, but I wanted to give it a shot. We had a week where I knew T’s nap wouldn’t be interrupted and I thought it would be good to tackle the transition before I’m so huge I pass out just thinking of putting him down for a nap. I figured if it didn’t work we could go back to the crib and try again this summer.

Before I get into everything, I will say this: T is a great sleeper. You can hate me for it, but he really is, and I can’t take much credit for it. It just happened. Naps are where we’ve always struggled, but in general he has no trouble going to bed.

I knew nap time would be our issue, but I was really surprised how well bed time went, so I wanted to talk about each one separately. It helped that he was pretty tired on the first night (although I’m not sure why, because we didn’t do anything special to wear him out). Before dinner we brought his bed (just a full-size mattress on the floor) into his room and put it in the same place his crib had been. We didn’t follow the advice I read online and kept his crib in his room, because it’s a pain to take down and we weren’t sure how this would all go down. We also moved everything that would be tempting for T to play with (mostly his books and clothes) into his closet.

We kept his bedtime routine exactly the same, except we read in bed instead of in the rocking chair. The whole time I explained that he sleeps in the big bed now. He was a little upset when I turned off the light, but I think it was because I usually give him a hug and a kiss before turning the light off, so I think he was confused at first.

We didn’t hear a sound from him, so I think he must have snuck down when I was leaving the room, because when I checked on him before we went to bed he was like this:

Thankfully, he went back to bed with no problems. The first night he took a couple tumbles out of bed. Both times he crawled back into bed, but was sitting up and half asleep when I checked on him. The second night I made sure to put pillows on the edge of his bed and that helped. (I’ve also heard that you can put pool noodles under the sheets, but it’s not really pool season in Iowa, so I don’t think Target has any right now.) He only woke up once the second night, cried for a few seconds, and fell back asleep. He usually doesn’t wake up every night like that, but if he wakes up, that’s usually the most we hear from him.

Paul’s been getting him up in the morning and each day he’s been sitting in his bed playing. Tonight is Paul’s first night putting T down to bed and I’m crossing my fingers that this won’t have too much affect (and that my posting this won’t jinx everything either). So far, bedtime hasn’t been too difficult and it’s giving me hope that we’ll be able to move the crib soon!

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: