Bedtime for Little Bug

The past couple of nights have been a challenge to get little bug to go to bed. And by challenge, I mean we have to wrestle her into her crib while she screams at the top of her lungs. Then she wakes up 2-3 times during the night. Since she sleeps in a normal size bed for her naps with her nanny, and seemed to like the toddler beds that we saw in IKEA last weekend, we figured it must be that she doesn't like her crib anymore and wants to go to a toddler bed.

So we bought her some toddler sheets and a pillow and decided to turn the daybed in her room into her new toddler bed. Of course this means we dismantled her crib to get it out of her room. After the crib was in pieces daddy and I looked at each other and started laughing. No turning back now, so much for easing her into a new bed.

It all seemed to be going great - all she wanted to do was hang out in her bed, read, play with her toys. So it was officially time for bed, she had her glass of milk, story, brushed her teeth and that is when the wheels fell off the bus. You would have thought her bed was a lava pit the way she clawed and climbed and tried to get away from it.

Step one - Tough Love: we kissed her goodnight, left her room and shut the door. Within a few seconds we heard banging around, heard her turn off her sound machine, and then she started pounding on her door.

Step two - Desperation: I walked into her room, picked her up and asked her if I could turn her sound machine back on - she said, "okay", like 'whatever, mom'. I crawled into her bed and she curled up with me. So I waited until she was breathing a little deeper, then I went to leave her room. She grabbed my arm and put her big brown eyes in my face and said "wait, pleeeze mommy." And that is when my heart broke, and all the books with advice about not sleeping next to your kids until they fall asleep went out the window.

Toddler bed is a half success because once she is asleep she sleeps through the night. The catch is getting her to sleep.

Today for her nap, we went through the same drama. We closed the door and luckily I waited outside the door for a few minutes to see if she quieted down. I was standing in the hallway when I saw her door knob turn, and buggy walked out the door like it was no big deal. Apparently opening doors is a trick she picked up in the last 24-hours. So I took her downstairs and figured we'd let her tire herself out some more.

We also decided that her Diego doll needed to take a nap, and we tucked in Diego with her sleep sacks and had little bug leave the room with us. She kept asking for Diego and finally said "okay nap", like we finally broke her.

It'll be interesting to see how many days it takes for her to get used to putting herself to sleep again. So much for a restful three-day weekend.