High Maintenance Mom

N gave up his crib on Friday night and has been sleeping on his mattress on the floor for the past few nights. It was exciting and strange to take apart the crib we've used for the past four years (it was a storage bin for a few months between the kids). B moved out of the crib at about 18 months. He had a stomach flu, threw up, and didn't want to go back into it...

B slept on his crib mattress on the floor for several months before getting a twin mattress from Ikea. His teachers had told us not to get him a bed since moved so much in his sleep and liked to jump. At nap time I'd often find B lying on another kid's mat after moving several feet from his own. We let B know that his mattress was a special place for him to jump. He loved it. He also used to fall out of it and wake himself up. Twin mattresses can really look big and tall when you put a two year old on them.

N is now 22 months old and had asked to sleep out of his crib a few times over the past three months. The first time, I removed his mattress and happily showed him where he could sleep. He wasn't interested in it at all. He cried and cried. We finally moved him back to his crib. The next night he asked to sleep outside the crib again but I told him he would have to wait a few weeks before we tried again.

The next time we tried I made a little fortress for him so he would feel protected. He stayed up really late but eventually fell asleep. The next night he didn't want to go to sleep so we put him back in the crib. I didn't want to make it into a game but I also wanted to honor his feelings.

On Friday, I was surprised he wanted to sleep outside his crib and then excited that he fell asleep without our help. Our bedtime routine now involves brushing teeth, reading a book, saying good night, closing the door, and then trying to keep B from yelling too much while N falls asleep. He looks so cute when he sleeps. I hope he continues to go to sleep easily. Right now B is screaming and crying because we won't tell him how big a red panda is and I'm hoping N isn't at his door trying to figure out what's going on.

We are planning to replace N's door with one like B's that has windows. We are also getting him a kids CD player because he can no longer use the music player that was part of his mobile. And we're talking about how much more space he has in his room for playing with his trucks and balls now that the crib is gone.