Crib Broken!

(This picture has nothing to do with this post but I though it was pretty cute, plus he asked me to take it after he emptied out the basket and sat in it.  I'm so glad he's finally embracing the camera and requesting photo ops!)

So, the crib to bed transition has been a little trickier than I had pictured.  Oh it could definitely be a lot worse, but we've run into our fair share of issues for sure.

As planned, the weekend after Austin started climbing out, we decided to transition to the toddler bed.  Austin has one of those conversion cribs where you just pop the front off, add a small rail to keep him from rolling out and onto the floor and voila...instant toddler bed.  So, Ryan goes upstairs one night before bedtime and fixes Austin's new toddler bed.  We take him up there to show him his new bed, he walks through his door and immediately starts wailing, "crib broken, crib broken!!!"  It was hilarious and incredibly cute, but Ryan and I had to contain our laughter because he was literally crying and very upset to find his crib "broken."

After the initial shock, we went through our nighttime routine, read some books and finally put Austin in his big boy bed.  Well, he HATED it.  He sat there and cried and whined for-ev-er.  I got in the bed with him, I sat on the floor beside him and rubbed his back, I did everything I thought of to do, but he was miserable.  It was 11pm, we were all exhausted, so Ryan just put the front back on the crib, and like magic, Austin laid down and immediately went to sleep.

So here we are a few weeks later and we haven't had the heart to go back to the toddler bed again.  His crib isn't that much different than a bed anyways, since he can get in and out as he pleases pretty much effortlessly.    Most of the time he's pretty good and will just lie down and go to sleep, but when he makes up his mind that he's not ready for bed, he's going to get out at least 2 or 3 times before he finally gives up.  The funniest part is that before he climbs out, he throws his pacis, cars, and/or blankets on the floor first giving him an "excuse" to get out.  About the time I see him throw his leg over is the time I run up there to intervene and every time he acts as if it's ok because he was just getting out to get the things that he threw "fell" on the floor!  He really is a sneaky little guy...

But really, the 'climbing out before going to sleep' part we can handle, no biggie, it's the 'climbing out after waking up at 5:45am' part that we can not.  My Austin, who has slept like an angelic little rock for 2 years now, has started waking up before the sun.  He used to wake up at 8am and now we're lucky to see 6:30!  Bedtime and naps are still the same as they have been, so the only thing I can think of is that he is starting to stir around a little bit really early in the morning and whereas he used to just fall back asleep, he is waking up realizing that he can get out of his bed on his own and decides he's ready to start his day even if it means missing out on a few (much needed) hours of sleep.

I can't even begin to describe the shock of opening my eyes in the dark that first time to see a 2 year old lying next to me in bed saying "Hi, Mom!" (and then looking over at the clock to see that it was 6am).  Each morning it seems to get earlier and earlier too.  And on those rare mornings when he does happen to sleep until after 7, my internal alarm has now been reset to about 5:30am and I just lie there and stare at the monitor and wait for the "thud" of two little toddler feet hitting the floor above us.  I guess it's a good thing though, because one morning I missed that heart-sinking "thud" and also did not receive a wake up call from my sneaky little boy.  Something made me stir though, and when I got up to pee I found Mr. Sneaky himself alone in the living room playing with his train table.  That could have definitely been a lot worse!

Looks like this weekend someone is going to wake up to a baby gate at his bedroom door!!