Sleeping in the Big Boy Bed

I know I owe this "baby book" an update on Will but I just haven't gotten around to it. But we have had a huge change around the house just in the last week that I needed to update about before another 6 months go by. One minute, we couldn't get Will to stay in his new room and in his big bed to save our life. The next minute, I realized my little boy was not a baby sleeping in the crib anymore.

He slept in his bed all night that first weekend that we put his room together. And that was it for a month. Everything has been in his new room (his toys, clothes, etc) since the room was done, and he would get dressed, have storytime, etc in his room. But we could NOT get him to STAY. IN. BED. Drove us crazy. And it wasn't that he was scared of the new room. In fact, he would cry and beg and plead when we would end up putting him in the crib each night.

Jennifer and Julie suggested a "prize" he could earn if he stayed in the big boy bed. I got him a little Batman action figure with a car and put it on the fridge. We talked all about the prize, but Will still refused to stay in that bed. As soon as you left his room, he was up. We just automatically put him in the crib after storytime by this time. I figured he just wasn't ready.

And then....just like that....he showed us he could sleep in that bed. Last Tuesday, I had put him in his crib after trying the big bed. I watched him on the video monitor starting to attempt to catapult himself over the side of the crib, so I ran up to his nursery and told him he had to lay down. He begged to go back to the big boy bed, and I gave in. And he did it! Didn't get out until 7AM the next day. Hurray!

Then, we had a little poster with circles I drew on it. I had some Thomas the Tank Engine stickers and every time he slept in the big boy bed, he got to put a sticker in a circle. After all the circles had stickers, he got a big Thomas the Tank Engine train with a track (the wooden one that I had gotten him some time ago). And this morning - he earned it. (I'm telling you - bribery works!!)

Its definitely not been the easiest. I think Wednesday night I had to tell him to go back to his room 9 or 10 times. But it is time. He was kicking at his crib every night before he would fall asleep, and I just knew that he was going to break it soon.

Now, instead of waking up to him screaming "Mommy!!" over the monitor, I wake up to him pitter pattering into our room every morning, clutching his Lovey up to his nose and quietly saying "mommy?". He climbs into bed with us and watches cartoons as we try to wake up. (Only once was it 6:30am - it was as late as 8:30 on Saturday!!)

I am so very proud of him.