A big boy...

The sleep strike appears to be lifting on Greenbriar Drive. After an absolutely horrendous night with Joshua on Friday night, we decided that we needed to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING that might help our little buddy get over whatever has been giving him fits. Jason's suggestion was to attempt the toddler bed, so that's what we did. And (oh my goodness, he's going to LOVE seeing this in print) he was right, at least it appears that way so far.

Saturday afternoon after Joshua's nap, we took a trip to the mall and Target to find Joshua a pillow of his very own, and to search for a few of the necessaries that we'd need to make this change. Incidently, do you have any idea how hard it is to find toddler sheet sets? Yikes. I have two on order from online, but apparently that's not something that you just stumble onto at a regular store. We picked up a pillow for him and some additional safety gates for his doorway, and then ventured home to make the transformation.

Right away, Joshua was enamored with his new big boy bed. He kept saying "Daddy made BIG BED" and "I Big Boy!" He immediately wanted to read books in his bed and sat for what I thought was a pretty long time for a 21 month old, reading to himself and to Bear. He made it pretty much the whole way through "Ucky Are" (Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are by Dr. Seuss) reading to himself. That's a 30 page book...and he knows it all.

When it came time for bedtime, I was a little nervous, but continued with our bedtime routine as normal. Tubby (time to play in the bubbles with Elmo and Dorothy), Hippety Hop towel time, PJ's, downstairs to say goodnight to Daddy and get Bear and milk, and then back upstairs to his room for stories and sleep. He drifted off easily and didn't move a muscle when I went to lay him down in his bed for the night. He woke once at 1:30, but was back to sleep by 2:30 and didn't rise until 6:30 Sunday morning.

Naptime was a dream yesterday. He went down easily, even talking about his big boy bed during lunch and play time leading up to it. And he slept like a prince for 2 hours. The pictures I snapped were from Sunday's nap time (during and after).

Last night was better. He woke up around 1 crying for me. But when I went in to see him, he stayed in his bed, trying to fall back to sleep on his own for about a half hour before saying "Mommy hold...rocking chair". So we rocked for a little while, and he was snoring in my arms in less than a half hour. (In Joshua terms, this is a VAST improvement!) So, the good news is that we've broken that nasty "Mommy can't keep her eyes open so we're going to the spare bed" catastrophe, and we're both getting more sleep than we have in weeks. Joshua was still snoring away when I left for my meeting at 7:45 this morning. Poor little buddy has some catching up to do.

T-minus 5 wakeups until the big weekend adventure without Joshua. Jason asked yesterday if I was having a nervous breakdown about it. I think it's only a minor one...but yes. I know he'll be perfectly fine with Aunt Libby (and Uncle Zig and Nana on their assigned shifts in case Libby happens to go into spontaneous labor), but I still hate the idea of missing him that badly for two whole nights. We'll all live, I'm sure. But I'll be anxious to get home on Monday....understatement of the year.

Enjoy the pictures!