Big Boy Bed

Well the time has come - Jackson is officially a toddler and no long my baby boy.  I certainly wish that I was saying this because I had a baby growing in my uterus, but that is sadly not the case.

Instead of transitioning Jackson into a big boy bed to free up his crib, we had to make the conversion purely out of safety for our little monkey.  It all started Thursday night through the wee hours of the morning, said monkey climbed, jumped, and leaped out of his crib and waddled his way into our bedroom a total of four times.  While I'm sure this is just a residual affect of the three rounds of steroids he's been on this month, we decided it was probably time for a big boy bed anyway.

I cried like a baby when I had to pack up his crib bed skirt, and flashed back to putting him in his crib for the first time like it was yesterday.

We made sure to make a big deal out of Jackson's new bed and even let him help us put everything together.  However, when nap time came Jackson was completely frazzled by his "broken" bed and kept saying "uh oh" and refused to ever really nap.

Bedtime was about as unsuccessful as nap time and hasn't gotten much better.  My good little sleeper now finds his way to our room at least once an hour, on the hour.  He's even so nice as to close each door behind him.

Waking up to your toddler staring at you while you sleep is a little eerie, to say the least.  Needless to say, I'm a very sleepy momma today and have quickly been reminded what sleep deprivation is.  And for a second, I think twice about hoping for sleepless newborn nights again:)

I know this phase too shall pass - or I'm putting the crib rail back up and tenting Jackson in until he's 18!

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Evenings at the Wilson's

There is nothing better than walking through the door after work and seeing my sweet boys. Jackson's eyes light up. He lets out a sweet squeal and crawls to me as fast as his fat little legs will get him to me. My heart melts.

I don't get home until 6, so the evenings go by so fast. However, now that Jackson is older and we have our routine down, they are much more enjoyable. We are even able to go on a walk around the block! Gone are the nights were I feel like I only close my eyes to wake up, rinse and repeat. For all you new mommies out there, it gets better. It gets so much better!

Our bedtime routine (bath,boob,bed) starts around 7:30 whenever I am done scarfing down some sort of dinner. While Mr. cleans up the kitchen, I strip Jackson down for his bath. This kid loves to be naked and loves the tub! He splashes and we play "peak a boo" with the shower curtain. I usually keep him in there until his fingers are shriveled and he starts rubbing his eyes. But, with face like these can you blame me?

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Bedtime Troubles

Like I have said in previous posts, every time we have a few good nights of sleep the following are sure to be not so great. We took 2 steps forward and 5 steps back! Jackson slept completely through the night on Thursday and Saturday and the nights before and after that were pretty good. But last night was back to the newborn days. We have established a bedtime routine, which consists of bath, boob, bed. I am a very ritualistic person by nature, so we literally do everything the same order every night. However, some nights (like last night) I have a hard time getting Jackson to stay asleep.

He always nurses until he passes out, usually after 20 minutes. Then I am able to carry him to his crib and he's good to go. On the bad nights, he wakes back up as soon as you lay him down and either cries or is wide awake and eventually starts to cry for you to come get him out. The cry it out method doesn't work. I know, I know, some of you are probably thinking that he will eventually cry himself to sleep - my child does not, he's like a freak of nature. The harder he cries, the more awake he gets. I usually wait a little while, nurse him again until he falls back to sleep and we try again. When he wakes in the middle of the night, he eats and goes right back down. I don't understand (but am thankful) how the middle of night feedings goes so well, but the initial bedtime can be so hard?!?

Last night I went to lay him down in his crib at bedtime and he was instantly wide awake. It's like he takes a catnap when he's nursing and gets a burst of energy. I was completely exhausted so I laid down of the couch with him and we were both out within minutes. Mr. Wilson woke me up at 11 to come to bed. I went to bring Jackson to his crib and he woke up screaming. It has been a few hours since I nursed him, so I fed him again and he went to bed. Then around 2:30 he woke up screaming again. Mr. Wilson got up, changed him and tried to get him back down with no luck. So, Jackson ended up in bed with us until 6:30 this morning. I fed him and couldn't get him to go back down. He usually goes back down at least until 8:30.

What is your bedtime routine, has this happened to anyone else? Do you think this could be signs of teething? He hasn't had fever, but his chewing on his hands and drooling like crazy. Christine, my sitter, called and said he has been wanting to sleep a lot again today...

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