Among the things that Wesley does with great enthusiasm is resisting bedtime. He screams, throws things, bangs on the wall, cries, begs, pleads and even promises to poop in the toilet. He hates going to bed. He likes eating his milk and banana. He likes reading books. He likes hearing the stories we make up. He just doesn’t like actually going to bed. It is a traumatic experience almost every night and almost every night it makes Amber and I feel like terrible parents.
A few weeks ago Wesley started getting out of his crib regularly. So we child-proofed his door and eventually put his crib mattress on the floor. Otherwise when he climbed out he would have to sleep on the floor. Some nights he’d wake up in the wee hours and want to get back in his crib, but this quickly turned into a game. On the floor, in the crib, on the floor, in the crib. So the crib went into the other room, but he was still using the mattress.
Yesterday we went out and got him a “big kid’s” bed (By the way you can spend a fortune on a tiny little bed. We didn’t, but didn’t get the cheapest either.). It is a nice twin bed which seems enormous compared to his crib mattress. He got new orange sheets, a pillow, and we finally gave him a blanket my mom sent a while back. He was so excited. He jumped, he ran around, he spun circles until he crashed head-first into the wall. It hasn’t changed the bedtime trauma in the least, but at least he is in a real bed. Hopefully this will be a stable platform we can use to move toward calm nights. If nothing else the bigger bed is comfier place to sit/lay when reading stories.
We moved the crib into our room. So poor Jillian who has slept on two different makeshift beds has a nice place to sleep. The crib is a big step up from the snuggle nest/coffee table combo she started with and the Pack’nPlay she has been sleeping in recently. The next big move for her will be to her own room. But that won’t be for a while. I can wait. All I can think of is both kids screaming taking turns waking each other up in their adjacent rooms. Won’t that be fun! To sleep per chance to scream.
Hello!
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