The Big Boy Bed

I haven't posted in a while. Maybe it's because I feel like life is moving at 100 miles an hour lately and I do not have the energy to keep up with it. The past couple of months Keith and I have had foreshadowing to what life will be like with an infant again in the form of no sleep! Okay that might be a small exaggeration, but we are exhausted...
We have been making the transition with Liam from crib to big boy bed and it has been a struggle.

Let me back up a bit. Liam has always been a wonderful sleeper. Nap time... not so much. But bed time has always been relatively easy. When he was an infant, he would wake up during the night but 9 times out of 10 it was just to eat and then right back to sleep. When he was about 4 months old we moved him out of the rock n play sleep in our room and into his crib. No sleep was lost. As he grew older we could put him down in his crib around 7 and expect him to sleep through the night, most times having to wake him up around 6:30 the next morning to get to the sitters. When we took the bottle away from him, still did not seem to phase him. Every transition has been easy. And maybe that's why we were naive with this one.

A few months back, we bought the big boy bed. We set it up in Liam's new room and he seemed to like it. He always wanted to go down there and play. Slowly over the next month, we got a new comforter and rug and fun decals (cars and choo choos) to go on his wall. His clothes were transitioned to his new room as well as some of his toys. It was now just time to move him.

The first three nights really didn't work at all so it was back to the crib for a few days. We then decided we were just going to have the bite the bullet. After all the baby would be here in a few short months and we would need the crib for him.

To say the last couple of months have tested my patience would be an understatement. Anxiety creeps in as the clock nears 7:00 each night. How will tonight go? Will it be easy? Will I lose my patience and react in a way I regret? Will tomorrow be better? What can I be doing differently?

We try to stay in a routine. 7:00 hits and we both go downstairs with him. We read 2 or so books in bed and then say it is night night time and that he needs to lay down. Hugs and kisses from both of us and then whoever's lucky turn it is, gets to stay downstairs until he falls asleep. This can be an hour process. Yes an hour! How ridiculous is that? We have a chair right outside his room so he can still see us. The next 45 minutes are spent with Liam trying to get out of bed every two seconds, or jumping up and down or shaking his guard rail violently with us just repeating "Please lay down Liam... Close your eyes Liam..." If we leave him down there awake, he just comes right up the stairs. If we "lock" him in his room, he cries hysterically and throws his body against the door until you open it again.

Usually after an 45 minutes of him pushing every button possible, he has settled down and falls asleep. But it doesn't end there...
Anywhere from once to five or so times a night, he is up again and opening our bedroom door. Because of this it is nearly impossible to get a good night's sleep, always sleeping "on guard", waiting for him to make his next move. And then more often than not, come 5:00 or 5:30 just when you want a couple extra minutes of sleep, he is up for the day, ready to go.

So where do we go from here? Lock him in his room, put up a baby gate, back to the crib?? All suggestions we have received but we have our reasons on holding back from each one of those. I think as of now we continue what we are doing and hope that it can't get any worse. :) Once the baby is here, we won't be sleeping anyway and maybe we can all transition again together.
So we drudge on... It can't be this bad forever right? Right??

In the mean time, his room did turn out pretty cute (as did the nursery!). I will have to post picture of both soon.