The Big Boy Bed

This is going to be a loooong night! We've decided that it's time for Ben to start sleeping in a "big boy bed." So, we have a toddler bed all set up and ready. All week we've been planning this since I don't have to work for the next 5 days. (I have the best bosses ever and they gave us an extra long holiday weekend!) We've been talking about it and trying to get Ben excited about his new bed. He knows something is going on, but I'm not sure if he really understands what we're talking about. He'll find out tonight though because tonight is the first transition night.

I'm going to keep this up in the background all night so I can share my (possibly) sleepless night with all of you:

6:30 pm: Change his diaper, turn on his music (he listens to the same Norah Jones CD every night) and give him good night hugs and kisses.

6:33 pm: We can hear him in there playing with his toys but so far he hasn't tried to escape.

6:34: I spoke too soon. The door handle jiggled for about 10 seconds and out he came, running down the hallway. I calmly told him that it's time for bed and we walked back down the hall. He climbed right back into bed with no fussing.

6:35-7:00: He thinks it's very funny to come out and then run right back into bed as soon as we look at him. We haven't even been saying a word to him. We just walk him back down the hall and make sure he's tucked into bed.

7:00: Eric has rigged the door to his room so that we can get in quickly if we need to, but he can't open it himself. Hmmm... Eric's theory is that once he realizes the door doesn't open anymore, he'll stop the game and just go to sleep. My theory: he'll decide he's really mad and start screaming and banging on the door. I guess we'll see.

7:31: There's been lots of banging on the door and lots of screaming "Daddy!" but no meltdown....until now. He's in there crying and screaming now. I think most of the crying is fake. He knows how to work it and it doing his best to get sympathy from mommy and daddy. Eric just went to check on him to make sure he's ok and everything's fine. I think at this point he may just have to cry himself to sleep.

7:45: Arrrgg...he's still not asleep and Eric has decided to try to help him fall asleep by sitting in there with him and rubbing his back. I understand his intentions are to comfort him and relax him, but I'm afraid that Ben will get used to that and then it'll be the only way he'll fall asleep. Anyway, it didn't work. As soon as Eric left the room he was up and out the door again. Eric says he gives up and it's all me now.

7:50: He's crying and calling for Daddy so I went in instead and gave him a kiss and tucked him in again. He's at least staying in bed now. He's not getting up anymore. He's soooo tired!

8:06: He's been quiet for 10 whole minutes!! I'm afraid I'm jinxing myself by writing this, but I think he may have fallen asleep! I want to go check but I'm afraid I'll wake him up. I'm going to hold off for now but if he's still quiet in another half hour or so I'll take a peek.

8:30: He's asleep!! Yippee!! That actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was expecting to have to fight with him until midnight or so and then find him passed out in the middle of his bedroom floor.

Ok, so one night down...many more to go. Hopefully this will get better each night. Now I'm just worried about what time in the morning he's going to wake up. Oh well. You can't have it all, right? lol