let's rewind

remember how I wrote on Aiden's update post that he was sleeping amazingly in his new big boy bed. Well, I obviously jinxed myself because the day that I published that post it all went to pot. I'm talking not only did he not want to stay in bed, but once he finally fell asleep he started waking up at all hours of the night, at least twice a night and fought with all of his little boy might to stay awake. It was like having a newborn all over again, except this newborn is a 3 foot tall chatterbox. One night he stayed awake standing at the baby gate talking from midnight until 3:00am. And don't even get me started on what a disaster nap time is.

We tried everything to make the big boy bed transition a success i.e. baby gate outside the door so he couldn't leave his room, a special stuffed animal to sleep with so he wouldn't feel alone, threats, punishments, bribes, rewards when he did stay in bed, playing music (I read somewhere that it'd help him not feel alone, but in the end it was a big distraction), we made his room darker, covered anything that might put off the slightest bit of light, moved his bedtime earlier, moved his bedtime later, tried wearing him out during the day and still no success. I've asked probably 15 moms now for advice and tried everything they told me to do and still...it's not happening. Everyone kept telling me "you can't give up and let him win" so I've been fighting this big boy bed battle and in the end, at 5:00 this morning when he decided to be up for the day I realized that no one is "winning" here. I'm worn out, he's beyond worn out and we're all cranky. So I spent my morning rearranging his room and rebuilding the crib. I've gotta say he was pretty excited to see it go back up. I kind of pushed the big boy bed because I wanted him sleeping in a bed before we went on our trip to Chicago so we wouldn't have to haul a pack-n-play across the country. But I really just don't think he was ready for this transition yet. So we'll wait a while and in the meantime...I'm really excited about getting to sleep through the night again. Oh happy day!