My little Big Brother is becoming such a BIG BOY!! Last weekend, we turned his crib into the toddler bed. Why you ask? I don't know! I thought he would be ready for it. My kids are SLOW at pretty much everything. This was the ONE thing, I thought he could do early. Not that it's early... the boy will be two at the end of March, but you know what I mean. On-time than. That sounds better. 
(This is Big brothre getting ready for bed. He likes to bring all his blankies up with him and lay down on the pillow. I know I know... the pacifier is next to go. I hate that stupid thing. I'm going to ween him and Mama's Boy together. )
Anyway, it has surprisingly gone good. I'm sure I'm using some very unorthodox mommy no no's to make it work. But frankly... I don't care! The nights have gone AMAZING... the naps... a little tougher. But he does eventually fall asleep. How do you get him to stay in his room you ask? I lock him in there. Now, let me defend myself before you jump all over me. Big Brother is a very passive, compliant child. So while I do leave him in his room, he doesn't scream and holler to let him out, once he figures out he can't leave the room, he plays for a few minutes then crashes. If I let him go in and out of his room, he goes straight into Mama's Boy's room. And when Mama's Boy sleeps, I can't have anyone disturbing him... especially Big brother. So all I do, is put the baby gate up at his door, so that in theory, he can still open and shut his door... he just can't get out. When he is ready to get up, I hear him open his door and go get him. If Mama's Boy wakes up BEFORE Big brother, I take the gate down and let him come down when he wakes up. Not so bad... right? It has worked great! ... so far.
(crashing on the floor for a nap. I think as far as the naps go, he just gets tired and decides to crash on the floor. I'm pretty sure he doesn't fall this far from his crib. But whatever... he's asleep!)The only thing I feel really bad about is that he is constantly falling off the bed. I don't think it hurts him cause the boy just stays fast asleep. But then he sleeps the rest of the night on the floor. Every night around 11pm, we hear a loud "thump" from him falling onto the floor from his bed. When we go to check on him, he's sound asleep on the floor! I feel bad. For two nights, I was going in there and putting him back in his bed. But a few hours later he would just fall out again. The funny thing is, I don't know how the heck he's falling out of it. The bed has the little bumpers on it. And his body seems too big to slide through the middle. All I can think, is that he's rolling OVER the little bumpers. I don't know. So... so far, its been a success. I feel bad hes resorting to the floor, but I'm not sure how to fix that. If you have any advice, I'd love to hear it. 
(When he falls off his bed, he's usually a little closer to the crib. But I don't know... I guess he looks comfy. He is laying on top of a blanket...)
PS- I posted pictures from Valentine's Day on my "Happy Valentines Day" post from a couple weeks ago. Sorry it took so long.
8 comments:
ok, he is SO CUTE!! He makes me want a baby.
Many of us have locked the kid in to keep them from leaving the room so you are definitely not alone! Its just a temporary thing anyway and my kids have preferred the floor over their bed many times, so your still a great parent you don't have to worry unless maybe I am really a bad parent, which could possibly be the case!
I just wrote a whole big comment and it "disappeared". The gist of it was don't feel bad about AJ sleeping on the floor, just be happy he's sleeping, haha. And Jake recently turned Shyla's door handle around so we lock her in her room after we found her going downstairs by herself each morning. If it doesn't hurt them, I'm ok with it :) You're doing a great job and the kids will/do love you for it!
Nothing wrong with a crib. Bea is nearly 4 and still in her crib. I also have an extra one just in case...
Your boys are the cutest
What a big boy! I am a total crib hold-out kinda gal...until they must move to something else, because a new baby is moving in, they are stuck in it. Except for Ben, who could climb out anyway, so we just stuck him in a regular bed. And don't feel badly. We had good bedtimes too, but the naps were tougher. I put those door nob things on when Josh moved to his toddler bed. He was similar to AJ, once he knew he was in there for awhile he'd just go to sleep! Our kids didn't fall over the rail like that, and once we took it off it usually only took one fall out to get their bodies used to not having it there. I am sure he will stop after awhile, once his sleeping mind figures out the barrier!
i have no intentions in putting ezra in a "big boy bed" until he is like 3! i just don't think i want to put up a fight yet. ok well i guess i will need to when he starts potty training, but i dread the day! however tomorrow is a special day for him- oh yeah its NURSERY time baby!!!
that 'thump' gave me a good chuckle (only cause it doesn't seem to hurt him)
I switched my kids to their bed around 2 yrs old. Nap times are always harder. we don't have baby gates, so if Thatcher gets out of bed, we take our squirt bottle and squirt water into his face. we did this to stop his SCREECHING and it seems to still work for other things! lol
I'm jealous you have separate rooms for them! lol all 3 of mine share one room. it's good in a way, but bad for nap time (for the two youngest) I guess that's the price I pay to have an office of my own, lol.
I totally get your mommy method of locking the door - I do something similar enough - no locking but closed door and super dark so they stop playing and go to sleep.
And that is so funny about him falling out - I mean its trageically funny. Just put a lot of blankets by his bed or a crib matress or something to make the thud more of a 'plop"
Loved the post!
Post a Comment