Late March, Jeremiah discovered what his Daddy and I had known for a while. His crib bars held merely the illusion of containment and could not actually keep him in bed anymore. One night of screaming, up and down, and everything but sleep and I knew we had to get him into a real bed as soon as possible.
So he and I took apart his crib (well, I took it apart. He 'helped'), put it into storage (I did that to, with my helper at my feet), and- instead of using the toddler bed we originally planned to- pulled out my old mattress and boxspring. For an hour he crawled on it, saying," Nighnight," and pretend to snore. So I knew he liked it, but I was still worried how he would do during the night. Would he sleep at all? Would he just get up and play? What about all his books? Would I come into the room the next morning to find torn pages scattered everywhere?
That night he slept nine hours straight.
He had never slept more than five hours at once before.
The next, he slept the oft fabled twelve hours.
He has consistantly stayed in his bed and slept without waking up nearly every night since then.
I tell people if I had known about this, I would have switched him as soon as he could walk.
But, since we were all getting better sleep, our morning nugga time had gone away. We didn't need extra quiet time, so we would just get up. I mentioned this to Zach one night after bedtime, saying I was so glad to be able to sleep, but a little sad that I no longer got the peaceful, quiet son and only had the crazy climber left. I had lost something I wasn't expecting to because he was growing up.
The very next morning when Little Man woke up, he squinted at me as the door creaked open, said, "Hi." as he passed me, and ran- straight into my bedroom. He climbed on the bed and patted the pillow asking me to, "Sit!" So I did.
We snuggled together for a few minutes and then he got up and our day really began. He does this most mornings, now. I guess he missed the moments of peace and being together as much as I did.
So, while our days of normal chaos continue, it's nice to know that my baby still wants to be my baby. At least for a few minutes, for now.
God bless and see you soon,
Joelle
