After I told you about the few hurdles we had transitioning Owen to his new bed, night three came along and he just…went to bed. And slept. He even started requesting to go to bed and when we finished reading his books, he’d flip right over and go to sleep. Obviously we are parents of the year and deserved a trophy for the amazing big boy bed conversion we pulled off.
Life has a way of smacking you in the face when you start to get cocky, I think.
Two nights ago he went to bed. A few minutes later he opened the door and came running down the hall, crying, to find me. I brought him back, tucked him in, told him I loved him and shut the door. Wash, rinse, repeat. Five times. After the last time he whimpered in there for a few minutes, but then was quiet. I figured it was an off night and we would go back to normal the next day.
Last night was worse. I didn’t walk him back five times last night. I walked him back EIGHTEEN TIMES. No, I’m not exaggerating. I started keeping track after that door would open every few minutes and the pitter patter of little feet would head towards me. And every time — just like alllll the books and websites and other parents say — I would walk him back calmly and quietly (seriously, all I had to do was point towards his room and he’d run back in sniffling), tuck him in, saying nothing more than “stay in your bed, goodnight, I love you”, and close the door.
EIGHTEEN TIMES.
It’s the most workout I’ve had in weeks.
It wasn’t until the end of the 17th round that I figured out that he didn’t want the door shut, so I left it open and he stayed in bed. I thought he was asleep after about 20 minutes, until I heard him come out again. Only this time he wasn’t crying, he was groggy and rubbing his eyes and looked confused (“Is the game over? Are we done playing? This is a game, right?”) so I tucked him in with a kiss one more time. It took a full hour, but he was out for the night. I shut the door a little while later.
And all was quiet, until he came busting into our room at 5:30 this morning and OH MY GOD, KID. I wish I had my phone next to the bed so you could see what I opened my eyes to. Seven or eight trucks lined up on the edge of my bed, a giant Newfoundland head, nose jabbed at me whining to go out and a tiny person with blond hair dancing around saying, “Mama?! Hiiiii, Mama!!!”
Not chai; espresso.
I had resisted putting a gate in Owen’s bedroom door because I didn’t want him to feel locked in there, but if this keeps up I might reconsider. I know it can take awhile when you put them in a bed, but I was SO convinced we lucked out and he just got it.
Smug, be gone with you.
8 comments
Comments feed for this article
June 19, 2012 at 8:24 am
Elizabeth
We did the gate thing right from the beginning and it works. The few times we didn’t close it, she got up and came out to our room and was much harder to get back to sleep (I think the “walk” woke her up more). She has never been upset by the gate being closed, and it gives me peace of mind too, that she won’t sleep walk or have playtime around the house in the middle of the night (I would wake up, but you know, irrational Mama fears!). We got a gate that mounts on the door frame (pressure mounted) and swings open so that it’s easy to use and doesn’t have to be taken down and put up again. She still gets up sometimes, but she just comes as far as the gate and I go in and put her back to bed easily. She knows that once she’s in her room, she’s not coming out until morning (except in unusual circumstances!).
June 19, 2012 at 8:49 am
Colleen C
Oh man – brutal. I’m sorry. I’ve got nothing for the going to sleep part. But my SIL uses an OK to Wake clock with my niece and it works awesome in the mornings — http://www.diapers.com/p/onaroo-ok-to-wake-alarm-clock-and-night-light-97160?site=CA&utm_source=cse&utm_medium=cpc_D&utm_term=MNV-002&utm_campaign=Google&CAWELAID=1338710802&utm_content=pla&ci_sku=MNV-002&ci_gpa=pla&ci_kw={keyword} — you set the time that it is “okay” to come out of their room and the clock turns green at that time so that they know they are allowed to leave their room. He might be too little for it though. Best of luck.
June 19, 2012 at 10:11 am
Britt
Oh man. That’s awful. Maybe with the door open it won’t be so bad tonight? My fingers and toes are crossed for you!
June 19, 2012 at 10:21 am
Candice
My son’s exactly the same. He’s been in a bed for a couple of months now and still gets out a couple of times every night and we have to leave his door a crack open until he falls asleep. We actually moved his bedtime from 7pm to 8pm because the entire hour of 7pm to 8pm was spent putting him back in his bed. If I put a gate up, he would just stand at it and scream (I don’t even need to try to know this). He also comes and wakes me up early (maybe 6/6:30), but I don’t care so much (of course, I’m not pregnant, so I’m sure you’re way more tired).
I read recently that the highest incidence of co-sleeping happens between ages 2-3 and it was related to this exactly – being too big for a crib but not yet secure in a bed. Sometimes Nate will come in our room in the middle of the night and crawl into bed with us (which is fine with us). I figure it’s just a transitional phase.
Good luck!
June 19, 2012 at 12:27 pm
Audrey
We have a childproof door knob thing on our daughter’s door (she’s two and eight months). It’s a safety thing – I fear her getting out of her room in the middle of the night and falling down the stairs. But it also keeps her in there when she’s supposed to be sleeping. I don’t know what we’ll do once she night-time potty trained…
June 19, 2012 at 2:24 pm
Sarah
18 is not that bad — we did it 47 times the first night our son was in his bed.
June 21, 2012 at 9:19 pm
Kathryn
holy bejeezus. this so makes me not want to do the big boy bed thing for a loooooong time.
June 22, 2012 at 7:48 am
Anastasia
Waking up to a newfie head – Love it!! Our mornings are very similar as we have 3 cats and the newfie. The 3rd cat is a new addition, and he is diabetic, so he is ALWAYS starving! He is usually the first one up at about 4:48 (CLOCKWORK) howling for breakfast. That usually gets the other cats stirred up so they start jumping on the bed, off the bed, on the bed, off the bed. Last comes the newfie head…….
Brian looked at me the other day and said, “how are we going to do all this with kids?”
Now, I don’t have kids yet, but I agree with the other posters about the gate – he’ll probably just stand there and scream. You could put a gate near a hazard like the top of a staircase so that he doesn’t go tumbling down. A childproof door knob also makes me nervous because what if he NEEDS to get out of the room for any reason (like fire or something) – I don’t think he should be locked in that room.
This might be a stupid question – but does he have a nightlight? Growing up I had a nightlight that was in the shape of a hot air balloon with two little kids in the basket. It was comforting for me because I could wake up, see all my stuffed animals, and then fall back asleep.
Great job so far super mom