Big Boy Bed Blues

Well it hasn't continued to be quite as easy as it started off with Colin's transition to a bed from a crib. It still hasn't been horrible but we have had a few problems. It is strange because the problems aren't consistent.

At first the issue was just that he started getting up EARLY. Like 5:45 or 6 AM. We researched various toddler alarm clocks that light up when it is OK to get out of bed. But we read another idea online to use a nightlight on a timer instead to achieve the same result much more cheaply. When the nightlight turns on, it is OK to get up. We have ordered a Cars nightlight from Amazon but lately this isn't a big problem anymore anyway. If he does happen to get up too early, we can usually just tuck him back in bed and he'll sleep longer. This weekend he didn't get up until 7 and 7:30 which is not bad at all.

So then the issue became that he wouldn't stay in his bed at night time after we tucked him in. This happened a couple of times last week where he would get up as many as 5 times after we tucked him in. So we instituted a sticker chart last week. If he stays in his bed all night (or at least right after bedtime) he earns a sticker. After 7 stickers we take him out for ice cream or something similar. So far this has worked really well. He has earned 4 stickers in 4 nights. One night he got up in the middle of the night but Keith quickly tucked him back in and he went right back to sleep. He still earned a sticker because he might have genuinely thought it was morning (which is why we need the nightlight).

So then this weekend the issue became naps. On Saturday he must have been out of his bed and out of his room 10 times before we finally just gave up. This went on from 1-3:30 with various consequences - taking things away like no books at bed time, no dessert, etc. I even sat in his room for 30 minutes so that he wouldn't get out of bed but he just happily talked to himself the whole time and didn't fall asleep (I dozed off myself though in the glider!). Then this same thing repeated on Sunday. Finally we resorted to keeping our hand on the doorknob from the outside so that he couldn't leave his bedroom and told him he wouldn't be allowed to leave until he took a nap. This finally convinced him and he did get in his bed and finally fell asleep. We are going to reverse the knob on his door so we can lock it from the outside if we need to during nap time in the future. It was interesting that he didn't cry or get upset when he was "locked in." He just took it in stride and decided to get back in bed and fall asleep after multiple checks to ensure the door was still locked.

So the issues keep changing a little bit but for the most part it has still been pretty smooth all in all. We just have to stay on our toes ready to combat each new tactic he throws our way!