New Bed

With James turning 2 and having a baby coming soon, Gregg and I decided it was time to transfer James to a toddler bed.  I was way more nervous about the whole process than Gregg.  James is so active I just knew it was going to be torture.  Plus the few times he has come into our bed, it is a game hiding under the blankets.  However it had to be done some time.  Gregg wanted to make him the bed so even with the start of school, he put together a cute little bed for James.  To help make the transition more exciting I made a new blanket for him.  I hoped that all these new things would make it easy.  When Gregg brought the bed home and put it together, he was pretty excited.  He kept climbing on and off and playing on his new bed.

The first night was not terrible but it was not easy breezy either.  He kept asking mommy and daddy to "sleep" or "lay down" by him.  I laid by him for a minute then gave him a kiss and left.  He was not happy.  He screamed and cried for a little while before he finally calmed down.  On the plus side, he stayed in his bed.  I think at this point he didn't quite realize that he could get out and move around.  Being confined to a crib his whole life previous, I'm not sure the thought crossed his mind.

The next day was better.  I laid down by him at nap time and fell asleep by him (This happens often.  I lay down by him to read him stories and guess who falls asleep first.)  Either way he good with me there so he went to sleep with no problems.  That night after we tucked him in, he started to cry again.  This time it only lasted about five minutes before he fell asleep.  Once again he stayed in his bed.

The next night he figured out that he could get out of bed.  Thankfully his door his kind of loud so Gregg and I could tell when he was trying to leave his room.  That night I think we had to put back in his bed a few times.  Each time we went in he would cling to us and ask us to lay down.  It was so hard to resist his sad plea for comfort with tears running down his face.  It made me feel like a horrible mother.

Since then it has gotten better.  Night time he has learned to stay in his bed and the crying is only lasting a few minutes.  At nap time I still have had to go in and put him back in his bed and remind him that it is not play time.  On the whole he was done well.  He only fell out of bed once on the first night.  Some down sides are that he isn't sleeping at long as he used to.  He is up around 6:20 every morning instead of 7:30 and his naps are usually an hour to an hour and a half as opposed to 2 hours or longer.  I'm ok with the shorter naps since it doesn't seem to make him cranky but an hour in the morning is killer for me.  However we are adjusting. (PS that is not the blanket I made for him.  I am no where near that good.)