Kade's 1st Night in Toddler Bed

I wrote this on 10/6/08.
Well, today I finally changed Kade’s crib into a toddler bed. He’s in the habit of sleeping with us, or at least falling asleep in our bed and then we move him. We tried just putting him in the crib and letting him cry, but he would cry, cry, cry and you could tell he was wide awake and not going to sleep, so I would give in. Since he didn’t like his crib, I would start using that as a punishment. It worked pretty well, but I decided he should probably like his bed. After I changed his bed to the toddler bed, he seemed to like it and liked being able to get in and out by himself. When it came to bed time, instead of doing our scriptures and prayer routine in our room, we did it in his room where he could lay in his bed while we read. When we knelt down for prayers, it was so cute to see him kneel down by his bed with his arms folded on top of the mattress. It was such a precious sight. Then while Kade was repeating Glen’s words for the prayer, he starts picking his nose and eating his burgers. NOOO! I didn’t know it started this young. So gross, but I guess we all did it! Ha. Then it was time for bed. Kade seemed to realize something was up, so I turned on some primary music, turned off the light, shut the door, and laid by him in hopes he would fall asleep. Nope. It was so cute though, he would start singing some of the words to the songs he recognized, “I am a child of God” and “Teach me to walk in the light”. Every move I made he would pop up and every once in a while he would reach over and feel my face to make sure I was still there. After a while, there was no progress of sleep. So I went out of the room and shut the door leaving him crying. After a few minutes he opened the door. So I just gave in. As soon as I put him in my bed, he fell right asleep. Oh well, we’ll see how tomorrow works out! Maybe I’ll be stronger.
5/3/09
Just to give an update on the whole bed situation, for the most part he does not sleep with us. Glen and I were getting tired of being kicked around in our own bed and Glen was getting horrible sleep. Kade had to have his space. Glen would be all the way on one side, myself on the other side and Kade had the whole middle, sometimes sleeping horizontal. Plus, we only have a queen bed, and once Bryson was born there were some nights all four of us would be in this queen bed. Sometimes when Kade thought we got too close, not even really touching him, he would say "owie owie, scoot over mom." We would get so frustrated sometimes and have to remind him this is mom and dad's bed, not his. And then sometimes when he got his space he would still end up right up next to one of us. Too funny. Anyways, since we've moved into our townhome, he has been so good to fall asleep in his own bed. There were a few nights we had copied what we had seen on "Nanny 911." We would tuck him in, kiss him and say good night. Then, whether it was Glen or I, we would sit on the floor close to the door. Of course, Kade cried and got out of bed. The first time he gets out, we put him back and reminded him it's time for bed, and then when he gets out again we just keep putting him back without saying anything. The first night we did that, well actually Glen did the first night, it took about 20 minutes, but then it got better every night after that. One of those first few nights, I had sat on the floor at the end of the bed with my back towards him, Kade was crying while calling "mom, mommy," and then he came over and hugged me around the neck. It was so sweet and sad. It was really hard for me because naturally when your child is crying and calling for you, you want to comfort and hold them. I gave him a hug and then put him back to bed. Those first couple nights it was hard to sit there and hear him. So we kind of compromised. One of us will lay next to Kade's bed until he falls asleep, luckily it doesn't take too long. Sometimes he will wake up in the night and come in our room. We will put him back in his bed, and the times he won't go back in his bed then we put a blanket and pillow on floor and he sleeps just fine there. Sorry, that update was kind of long. Anyways, as sweet as it was to see Kade asleep next to us, Glen and I are extremely happy to have our bed back.

No more sleeping in mom and dad's bed!