Last year I had a goal on my 25 Things list to teach Jackson to roll over and crawl. Since he (and Christian) are my life I wanted to include him in a few of my 26 Things for this year. I would, of course, still focus on him if I hadn't made it one of my goals. But, I felt I should include him in my written goals. I didn't know what milestone to work on with him. I was thinking about potty training but I haven't had the motivation since I have been feeling "more pregnant."
We needed to teach him about sleeping in his own bed first. So we did!
Copied from the family blog
Last week we got a twin mattress (and box spring) for Jackson. My dad was nice enough to do the ordering and picking up for us. He brought a wooden bed frame from my brother's old loft bed to go with it. My dad helped me set it up in Jackson's room (Christian was still coming home from work at the time). Christian bought him sheets for the bed. "Tats" (dogs).
Jackson and I played on the bed for a while that night. And he's played on it in the days since, too. All we were waiting for was an attachable bedrail that we ordered on Amazon, and then we could try it out.
We got it on Monday night and immediately set it up on the bed. Jackson thought the added bedrail made the bed more fun and got up there with some of his toys.
We tried to get him to sleep on it that night. That didn't work. We tried for an hour and a half and he screamed every time we left the room (and wouldn't stop). Eventually, it was my bedtime so we decided the crib was best. We'd try again the next day.
On Tuesday, I made sure Jackson was good and tired before putting him down for a nap. It was around 11:40 am (which is actually a little early for bedtime on a normal day) that he showed signed of being completely exhausted. I took him upstairs. He was a little nervous to be in the new bed again so I stroked his face with my fingers and sang him a song over and over again...AND...he went to sleep! In 5 minutes or less even!
Here is Jackson sleeping on the bed for the very first time!
He slept for about 2 hours. More than what I expected since he has had some trouble sleeping in new places or when we are away from home. He cried immediately when he woke up but I was in there really quick to tell him what a brave boy he was for sleeping on the big boy bed. We had a little celebration for him-brownies. Any excuse for a brownie! He loves them and so do I!
That night I was hopeful that he would sleep on his bed again, but I really didn't expect it to go well at all. Christian and I kept him up just a little later than usual. He was way to hyper to go down at normal bedtime. So it was closer to 7:45 pm when we took him to his room. Christian helped put him down and I stayed with him for a good 20 minutes. We sang and I kept having to ask him to lay back down.
After a little while I started to slowly make my way to the door. He didn't like it but stayed in bed, at least. I made it to the door, then the hall outside his door, and then I shut the door most of the way so he couldn't see me. I kept talking to him since I could tell he was nervous and sad. Then I left. I went to my room and shut the door. I could hear on the baby monitor that he had ran to the door and was banging on it. He cried for about 5 minutes and then it was quiet.
Christian and I gave it 15 minutes before we went to check on him. He had crawled back on to his bed and FELL ASLEEP! So if it never works again, at least he knows that where he's supposed to sleep.
He slept through the night (again...not expecting that either) and when he woke up he played with his toys. I'd call that a success.
UPDATE-He is still sleeping in it just fine and it has been 4 days now!
