One Week In

Yesterday at church, the lady leading the service asked us if we wanted to share any praises or good that we had witnessed or that had happened to us the last week. I was very close to standing up to say:

"A week ago today, I stood here in tears. I was emotional (and probably hormonal!) and was so sad to see my "baby" growing up so fast. He sprung this milestone of getting rid of his crib and moving him into a toddler bed that day, and I felt like I wasn't ready. It seems so trivial and insignificant, to the bigger battles people are facing in this room and in the world today, but it scared me and all I could think of were the bad things. That he wasn't going to be a good sleeper anymore, that he'd wake up at night, that it would be a mess. But God provides. Even in the smallest and seemingly most insignificant moments in our lives. I leaned on Him, I prayed a week ago today as I held a sleeping Braden in my arms, that God would be with him, to give us both strength so that we could get through this new time in our lives. It was such a big change, but God provided, and this last week went better than I ever could have imagined."

But I didn't. I know the people in our church would welcome any story of praise, or any story that we wanted to share, but I just kept it to myself and silently thanked Him for comforting in my time of need. Braden has been sleeping wonderfully. The first 3 nights I stayed with him until he fell asleep, but ever since then, he has fallen asleep on his own. Last night he was so tired, it was the first night that he went to bed, stayed in bed, and went right to sleep.

Naps. Are a different story. He's only had 2 naps this entire week, and only because I've stayed with him and rubbed his back until he fell asleep. This is NOT a habit I want to get into, so from now on I'm going to leave him to his own devices and just pray that he is tired enough to learn to nap on his own. Has NOT happened yet, even on his most tired days, he just won't settled. Still hoping the novelty of his new freedom will wear off, like it has at night, and he will just want to and need to nap eventually. I know he's not ready to give up naps, but maybe he will just "make" himself not need to nap? Oh well, no other solution really

I am still thankful every day that we sleep trained Braden. I know it's not for everyone, but without good sleep, me, Jay, & Braden would NOT function well together.

So, Video Monitors are HILARIOUS!

...and a necessity for toddler bed training! I never used a video monitor up until this point. Just for me and my family, I didn't see the point of one...really ever. When they're newborn all they do is lie there and cry, you go in. As they get older, I can see why it would be neat to have one, to see if they're actually awake or if they're just unsettled, to see if they're standing up in their cribs, etc. But I still didn't see the need to buy one. Well, God must have known that I would need one one day, and it just so happens that last year I won this awesome Tommee Tippee monitor from a blog giveaway, and I can't see getting through toddler bed training without one! And this is why:

EPIC. NAP. FAIL.

I was SO MAD when I found this. This was "nap" time on day #2. I knew he wasn't going to sleep but he wasn't being that noisy, so I didn't think much was going on. Plus, day #1 he took about 6 books off his shelf and quietly read them for the hour of quiet time. Well I wasn't prepared for the above, that a Toddler Tornado would take over my son during his supposed "nap time". I know I got tons of belly laughs from the people I shared this with. My I can just picture my brother Ben and my best friend's husband Steve with big belly laughs saying "wayta go, buddy!" And I do laugh now, I even laughed an hour later, but mommy lesson learned!

So I set up that video monitor pronto and used it for the first time for the designated nap time the next day. I gotta admit, looking into the screen I kept waiting for one of those scary ghosts to pop up and scare me.

The really cool thing about this monitor is that you can talk to your child through the baby unit. It worked really well! Laura was over that afternoon and she caught him climbing up on his change table. So I spoke to him through the monitor for the first time and said "Braden! You get down from there please!" He suddenly stopped, looked around and had this "how did she know!?" look on his face. Then he figured out that my voice was coming from the baby unit. Actually....he didn't think it was my voice at all....



He totally, 100% thinks that it's my mom when I talk through the video monitor! It's quite hilarious and we're all getting such a kick out of it! I'm really enjoying the monitor and I can calmly reassure him in the morning that "Mommy's coming soon!" so he knows it's okay. It was time to start sleep training again, this time for the toddler bed.

Daddy read him stories last night and I came in to sing a song with him. I told him that he had to go to bed by himself tonight and that I loved him. He cried not even the 30 seconds it took me to leave his room and go turn on the monitor. It took him quite awhile to even get out of his bed, he was so distracted/entertained by his new Thomas decals we put on his wall yesterday I could hear him talking to his trains. He ended up getting out of bed twice, running to the door, but all the while remaining calm and happy. I think it took between 1/2 hour and 45 minutes for him to settle and fall asleep. My boy has ALWAYS liked to be very comfortable, so I couldn't imagine him falling asleep in front of the door or or on the floor anywhere....this is how I found him:

How did I get so lucky? I was so nervous and anxious about this transition, but he has made it so easy on not only himself, but on me too. I'm so proud of him! I think with his history of sleep training, he just knew it was bed time and that he'd eventually have to fall asleep. There was no crying, kicking, screaming, he didn't fight it at all. And as my Mom says, I think the novelty of the freedom of the toddler bed will soon wear off and he'll just want to sleep there.

I know nap times will take awhile, as he was pretty inconsistent with them before the bed, as my friend Katie told me, it takes awhile for them to learn the toddler bed nap! But at night, I couldn't ask for better. He sleeps his usual 12ish hours a night, straight through, we did decide to keep his door locked, he knows he needs to stay in his room when the door is shut and there's no fussing, crying or fighting it. He just calls out for me when he's done and that is that! Thanks for all your support and kind words this week!

*Note: This was not an official review for Tommee Tippee, nor am I affiliated with them, I do love their products though!*

Braden's Big Boy Room

I've had a few people ask me if I plan to keep the jungle theme in Braden's room. In light of his love of Thomas, I have decided to mainly do a Thomas room for him. I found the toddler bed on Kijiji a long time ago and snarfed it up because it was only $50, mattress included. My mom's friend bought him Thomas toddler bedding in the States for $30, that kind of thing is unheard of and unavailable in Canada - so I'm very thankful for friends of friends who travel to the States!

Today Braden was very excited to see that I had Thomas "steekers" (decals) for his walls above around his bed! So he helped me with that and really enjoyed it!

 




I just ordered 2 Thomas valances off of Etsy, but instead of doing all Thomas, I'm doing a "mutt" room for him. I'm keeping his jungle decals on the wall and I will keep an "ode to his nursery" on that side of the room. Other than that, all my Zoofari nursery items will be gone! I ordered these prints off Etsy:

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And even though Braden doesn't know of Star Wars yet, you have to start them young and how could I resist getting him these ADORABLE prints, also from Etsy? I've been coveting them for over a year!

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I would have loved to get all 8, but I chose 4 because of the price. I chose Luke, Chewie, Yoda, & R2! I'm trying to find some Thomas prints, but it's just not really working out for me! The ones on Etsy are too expensive, maybe I'll have to just print some and frame them myself? But maybe the decals are enough? His room just seems so BIG without his crib in in, we have 10' walls so I feel the need to FILL his room....but maybe less is more? Once I take down the wooden animals off his wall it's going to seem so bare! The only thing I can think of his hanging this from the ceiling and putting his stuffies in it:

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What do you think? I'm not sure...can't decide! Anywho here's a few more pictures from today of my "big boy".

Oh...and just this happened today:

Braden is having his first nap in his toddler bed as I blog this!!!

Braden's First Night in his Toddler Bed

Before I get to talking about how bedtime went, I'll talk about nap time. Firstly, my boy who usually gets 12 hours of sleep per night, only got 9 the night before. We went to church and he was more fussy and impatient than usual, but stayed awake on the ride home. We let him play a bit on the deck outside, while I scrambled to get his "big boy" room ready! He helped get his crib out of his room, and I'm so happy that he wasn't mourning the loss of his crib at all. I know that he loved his crib, but I'm very happy that he obviously didn't form a special "bond" with his crib and wasn't sad to see it go at all. We enjoyed playing in his room, I said excitedly "look at your big bed in your room! Wow!" and he seemed truly happy about it!" Look how big his room is without that crib!

"So much more room for your activiites!" Said Jay (for all you Step Brothers fans out there!) We spent extra time in his room and read extra stories. Had our snuggles and I sang to him and rocked him. I told him I was going to sing to him one more song, and then it was time to rest in his big bed. He seemed fine with that. But...then he didn't like being in his bed at all. Great! I sat on the floor by his bed, encouraging him to lie down and rest and Mommy would stay...but he started kicking his feet in protest. After about 10 minutes I told him Mommy had to leave now, but it's time to stay in your room and rest until Mommy comes to get you. I left his room, locked the door, and he cried/fussed for a few minutes and then there was complete silence. He was quiet and babbled at times off and on, I left at 2:30 and planned to go get him at 3:30. I got a bit caught up in my PVR episode of Grey's Anatomy, looked at the time and it was 3:37, he was starting to knock on the door and get a bit ticked. So I went it, told him he did a great job staying in his room! Then came bedtime routine.

He had tub time as per usual...and then he read stories with me...(I was too lazy to use my good camera, bear with the cell phone pics!)
And then we had some nice snuggles...Mommy was very tired too! I rocked him and sang to him one song, and unintentionally on my part he fell asleep. poor little guy was so tired. I really wanted him to fall asleep on his own, but on the other hand, putting him down asleep in his toddler bed wasn't such a bad thing because he would wake up in it and hopefully realize that it's not such a scary change afterall.

So there's my big boy in his big bed. It was a rather heart melting moment seeing him there all snuggled into his bed. He did stir and start to whimper at about 10:30 last night, but settled himself and slept right through until about 6:45 this morning! Yay! Almost 12 hours straight through! I couldn't ask for a better first night. I am not going to get in the habit of rocking him to sleep every night. It's not our style and it's just not feasible for me with a baby on the way, and plus he will not be that tired every night to just fall asleep on me. So I just hope that now that he's slept in and woken up in his bed, that he will be able to settled on his own.

I feel really good about locking him safely in his room, and by your comments here and on IG and FB it doesn't seem that I'm alone in doing that either. Thanks for all your support, it sure means a lot to me!

I just showed Braden that picture of him sleeping and I said "look, Braden! That's you sleeping in your big bed last night, you did it!" He was so proud, tapped his chest and said "'Den! I did it!" And here's a video I took this AM about going in to get him:

And no included for your weekly TAT read! This is our same bedtime routine...there is just actually a bed involved! Thanks for stopping by, stay awhile!

Another Milestone Found Us Early

That's my boy. Standing on a chair, clinging to my leg as I'm doing my spring cleaning in my kitchen. Mind you, his intentions were good "I hepping Mommy!" he excitedly stated! One might call him a stage 5 clinger, right about now. I don't know if it's because I've been home with him pretty much every day in the last 2+ weeks other than to go to the odd appointment, and for a little 4 hour shift the other evening...but this boy wants his mommy. The good news is, he happily still loves all the other people in his life, but I am his "person". It seems that I have to put him down for naps, I have to put him to bed, and his new thing lately...I have to put him back to bed, after he climbs out of his crib so I can rock him and sing him to sleep. I haven't done this since he was 5 months old, I'm not even kidding. It's like he senses his impending doom of becoming a big brother in less than 6 months and he's soaking up every bit of mommy time that he can. I am cherishing these moments, my busy boy often doesn't have time to snuggle during the day, other than if an owie occurs and he needs me to kiss it better... But then last night happened. Or what I would like to dub.

"The worst night of my life as a mother, bar none."

No, it didn't end in injury, a trip to the ER, or anything worse. No one was hurt, except maybe Braden's feelings, and mine. I realize I might will get judged on this one from a lot of you, but we've done it with him ever since he's had a steady nighttime routine of sleeping for hours and hours in a stretch. Here's how our evening went:

• 7:00 PM Braden is in bed
• 7:45 PM Braden still awake, quietly babbling to himself as he often does
• I really wanted to go for a walk with Jay and the dog, so my instincts told me to lock up the house, "just in case" Braden climbed out of his crib at night for the first time. He now likes to try to escape out the front door and garage door to be outside, fun. So I did, I locked up the house and we took the dog for a walk like we always do
• 8:10ish PM get home from our walk to discover that, yes indeed, Braden did get up. MOMMY FAIL. WORST MOMMY OF THE YEAR.
• Thanking God that he's safe and that he wasn't upset in the least to not find us when he got up. I have no idea if he had just gotten up or had been up ever since we left
• 8:15 PM snuggles and hugs in his room, rocking and singing...not asleep but lay him down in the crib
• 8:17 PM thump.....pitterpatterpitterpatter down the hall and into the living room he comes as proud as can be that he can now escape. Hi Mommy! Hi Daddy! (he was SO cute)
• 8:20 - 9:50 PM various attempts at different techniques of putting him back in his crib so he'd stay there. "Super Nanny" of quietly and calmly walking him back to his crib about 10+ times did nothing. He was upset every time I left.
• In different intervals I'd try rocking him to sleep and singing, no dice.
• I finally resorted to putting a lever lock on the outside of his door so he'd learn he had to stay in his room. BAD IDEA. Panic instilled and it scared him so bad. ANOTHER MOMMY FAIL. I bought an extra one of these locks in anticipation of this very situation, for that when we moved him to a toddler bed, if he started getting up in the middle of the night that he couldn't wander and hurt himself and/or get into trouble - to keep him safe in his room.
• at 9:50 PM after lots of crying from him, he was finally exhausted enough that I rocked him to sleep as warm, wet tears rolled off my cheeks and onto his chubby little hands that were hugging my neck

ETA: As one of my readers commented, that I hadn't stated, we live in quite a remote rural place, we can see our house at all times on our walk.
 
I don't know why, but last night was so hard for me as a mom. In all honesty and truthfulness, I was not frustrated or angry at Braden at all. I felt awful for him. If he felt distrust in us because we weren't there when he got out of his bed the first time...I can't blame him. I think that's why when we locked him in his room, he panicked. I only did it for 5 minutes and couldn't take it, and regretted that decision. I have never wanted bedtime to be a "torture" or to be seen as a punishment. Which is why spanking to stay in bed, is just not an option that will ever work for us. His crib/bed should be a happy and safe place to be, like it always has been. That's why I've personally chosen to never use the threat "do you want to go to bed!" because I do want him to go to bed, when the time is appropriate, and up until now he's always loved going to bed.

I am not coping well with my little boy transitioning from toddler to this supposed "big boy" he has to become. Also, I feel that all my hard work sleep training him will be thrown out the window and that he will have major regressions when we put him into his toddler bed. Gone are the days of  "night night Braden" as I lay him down in his crib and he drifts off to sleep like he has since he was 5-6 months old. I saw it happen with my nephew Luke, and it's had me terrified for this milestone because of it. At no fault of my SIL, who sleep trained him like I sleep trained Braden, it was just "freedom" for Luke and I see it being the same for Braden. It turns into a game of getting up multiple times from the new toddler/big bed at bedtime, and then it can turn into getting up in the middle of the night, or waking up and getting up at the crack of dawn every.single.day.

I was hoping to transition him at the end of the summer, when he was more mentally mature and would hopefully "understand" better that he has to stay in his bed because it is bedtime. He's been going through such a whirlwind of changes that I really do not want to lay this on him now, but I feel like I have no choice but to put him in a toddler bed, starting today. I plan on reading my SleepEasy book again today for their tips on getting him into a toddler bed, and I know I'm not supposed to do it when he's teething or when he's going through a big milestone, such as a language explosion, which he is...but I don't think it's safe to have him climbing out of his crib all the time.

Big changes are upon us and in all honesty, I am not looking forward to them at all. I'm a firm believer that our children feed off our moods a lot, so I will put on my brave face and stay positive for Braden, I really will. But I don't want to let go of toddlerhood just yet.

In light of this new milestone and with upcoming plans to be gone for Mother's Day, at least we can put off potty training until the third week of May.

Again, I ask you for help. How did you make the transition from crib to toddler/big bed? Was your child an escape artist like I think mine will be, how did you handle it?

P.S. I have wonderful readers who are always kind and supportive. I'm not looking to be judged at this time about leaving Braden to go for a walk last night, so please hold back those comments if you wanted to make them. Last night was seriously one of the hardest nights of my life as mom.