Prior to the sickness that hit our house, our latest adventure was transferring Jude from his crib into the toddler bed.
Now if you recall, this little mite has had some problems slipping into and staying in dreamland ever since he was a wee babe. The first few months, Jude had reflux and lying down (especially on his back) was horrid for him. There was a while there where he only slept half propped up on Brian or me. It didn't help that he didn't want to be swaddled to sleep, but he did want to be held. I know that Jude has ended up more often sharing our bed in the middle of the night than Tam ever did.
Getting him to sleep through the night was a bit tough. There were colds and snot as well as teething pain or gas pain...Then there were stints where he woke early and was ready to get up and play (4am was the worst!) Going from multiple naps to two naps to one nap to one nap at the same time as Tamlin tooked some effort on all of our parts. However, in the past 6 months or so, it seemed that he was sleeping well through the night for 3 or 4 nights, and then one have 1 or 2 rough nights. I swear it seemed to time with the phases of the moon and the horrid crying nights were on full moon nights...but I don't have any hard data to back this up. We tried all sorts of remedies to help soothe him in the night. We tried complete darkness, a nightlight, a bright nightligt...silence, white noise, music box, music he can turn on...a binky, two binkies, teething rings...books, more books, no books...cars, no cars...and of course, Monster. We did realize that he slept best with binky, book, dark, Monster, his musical puppy dog which he can turn on,...and when Tamlin was in the room.
Then, after the turn of the year, it seemed that we were having most nights be fine and everyone waking up at a resonable hour (between 6 and 7am). However, Jude woke up and cried. This wasn't a little cry, but huge wails that demanded attention. He did this whenever he was alone in the room...if Tamlin was there, he woke up and giggled or tried to "talk" to him.
I felt it was time to let the little dude have some freedom when he woke up...that way maybe he could entertain himself and little momma and daddy have a few more moments of blissful sleep. This, plus he is getting heavy to lift up, led me to switch him out of the crib. I checked the baby book, and Jude is the same age as Tam when we switched him too...21months.
I love our crib because it converts to a toddler bed. This means it is the same mattress as the crib, but set at the lowest setting and has a half-rail set up along one side. The conversion is easy...especially with two great little helpers. Ah, who am I kidding? The boys jumped on the mattress while I converted the crib to bed.
Once done, both boys immediately crawled all over it.
Now for the test...would Jude sleep in the thing?
Would he just crawl out and play with his toys?
Would he fall out, like Tam did on the first night?
Well...
The first night went awesome. I placed Jude in the bed, pulled up the covers, and he went to sleep. In the morning, he got up and stood at the gate in the doorway and called out to us. I thought, "surely this must be a fluke; it can't be this easy, can it?"
Nope, not that easy.
First nap in the new bed failed. He fought naptime and kept getting out of the bed to play with his toys or get books to read. He ended up with Brian snuggled in our bed for nap.
Second night failed. He kept getting up in the wee hours of the morning to play and pull books off the shelves. It was the thump of books that woke me. In desperation, I swung his bed around to face the wall, essentially making it a crib again for the remainder of the night. He didn't like this at all.
Second nap went fine. I think he realized that this new bedtime freedom can be easily taken away again.
Third night...
I put Jude to sleep in his toddler bed as usual. Tam and I go downstairs for clean-up and a little game time. At Tam's bedtime, we come back upstairs and I am marveling that I hadn't heard Jude at all.
This is what we find...
Jude decided that if the toddler bed as good, sleeping in the big bed must be better! Tam didn't quite know what to think about his little brother sleeping in his bed. Brian thinks he likes it because Tam's bed is right over the register, so it is warmer. I just think he likes to spread out more :-)
It has been two weeks or so since the switch and things have gone mostly well. There has been just one other occasion where the toddler bed was turned to the wall for a nap. However, Jude is found in the big bed often, especially if it isn't occupied by Tamlin. Now, when Jude wakes in the morning, he is content to talk to Tam or to read books before crying to get us up. Though, sometimes Tamlin isn't ready to wake up, and we hear these snipits...
"Go to sleep, Jude"
"This is my bed; that is your bed"
"Get into your bed, Jude"
"I'm still sleepy, go to sleep too"
"I'm taking my nap, go to bed"
Jude has also learned that a stern look from a parent in the doorway means to get your butt back into that bed this instant...which he does and he even pulls the covers up to his little chin. Too cute!
However...it did lead to the question of what are zombies and why do they want to eat brains.
