So we are heading closer to officially become a family of four, and I am still shocked that I am a mom...does it ever hit you that you are a grown up?!!
Anyways, we have about a month to go before this next little guy gets here and I am in full swing nesting mode. The nursery is pretty much done; we just need to hang some art work. We kicked Andrew out of the nursery about two months ago so he would have plenty of time to adjust to his big boy room before Thomas gets here- more on that in a minute. The nursery is the largest regular bedroom in the house so we have room for a full sized bed in there so if needed whoever is doing the night feedings can have a comfortable place to lay down and get some shut eye.
Like I mentioned, Andrew moved to his big boy room, and I am SHOCKED by how well the transition went. Seriously could not have planned it better myself. They always say to "look for the signs"...let me tell you, I suck at reading the signs, but in hind sight I think they were smacking me in the face. We had decided that once our summer visitors were pretty much wrapped up we would turn the guest bedroom into Andrew's room and put the guest bedroom in the nursery until we needed to start using the bonus room when the baby arrive and start using the extra hard bed for guest that we have been hiding for the past year.
Anyways, I had always thought the sign that we needed to move Andrew was him actually escaping from his crib. I was terrified of moving him into a big boy bed so early when all my friends have waited until their kids were at least year years old. But with a baby on the way we had to readjust. That means moving him about a year before I was intending I was not ready for the power struggle that could arise if he wasn’t "ready". But about a week before we were going to seriously start changing the bedrooms around Andrew started acting out at bedtime. He wasn't going to sleep like he used to and he was getting mad at us for putting him in his crib. He was throwing everything out of there and was just becoming a brat to deal with at bedtime. And let me tell you something, if there was something that this kid was a pro at was going to bed. So after a few days of him acting out I threw my hands up. If you don’t want it in your crib, we will take it all out, so I did, everything came out including the mattress. That first night was interesting. He did better than I expected, but was by no means going to sleep on his own like we were used to. I think I fell asleep in there on the floor beside the crib mattress that was more like a pillow to Andrew then a bed. The next day went a little better, but my back was killing me and there is a reason that pregnant woman do not sleep on the floor. So I told Joey that we are working on Andrew's room this weekend because we wanted it "complete" before we moved him in so we weren’t making some many changes back to back.
So that weekend Andrew went to Grandma's house and we finished the big boy room and he loved it. His favorite part was the ceiling fan...just wait until he finds out it comes with a remote control. We didn't get a toddler size bed because we didn't want to spend money on a second crib mattress. We also didn’t get a fun toddler bed because eventually we want the boys to share a room and if we were going to invest in furniture we were going to look into bunk beds. So right now it is just a mattress on the floor. Joey was dead set against it, but after the first few nights of Andrew rolling off the bed he could see we made the right decision. Eventually he will be up off the ground, but we aren't in any hurry.
It took Andrew about a week to get used to the change and he has been such a big boy about it. Bedtime was easier then nap time. But we have a routine worked out and we read books before bedtime and it helped in the beginning to sleep with a toy of some sort that wasn’t a traditional toy...ie: box of baby wipes (don't ask, I don't get the fascination) or legos or even a book these days. I don't see the harm in it and anything to make it easier these days is fine with me. There were a couple of nights in there that I don’t think he was ready for bed, but it was bedtime and we don’t mess with our schedule too much these days with a very pregnant mommy putting him to bed. On those days I would kiss him goodnight and close the door behind me. He would cry, but it would only last a few minutes. We did cry it out when he was younger so this was a very short version of that-time wise nightly and time-wise for just a few days, and after a few days of realizing that he needed to go to bed he has been a big boy ever since. He even tells me night-night now, or bye-bye when it is time to get under the covers. Every once and a while he will not be in bed when we leave, but he knows how to get in and pull up the covers. We have a moveable night light in there with just enough light for him to move around and that has worked out really well for us. But seriously the hardest part of bedtime is getting him in from outside and up the stairs. Once we are in his room he is good to go and start his bedtime routine.
Hope this information helps out. We are nowhere near potty training although his favorite book these days is about a duck that is learning to use the potty chair. We will start looking for the "signs" on that front, but I am thinking it will be sometime next year before we try to tackle that transition. Until then it is all about kissing the baby and learning where the baby will sleep and pointing at all the babies at daycare...I hope he is ready because he is going to be a big brother very, very soon!
Here is a link for the nightlight we got. It was last season at Target, but I could only find it on Amazion right now. I think we are going to get the turtle version for the nursery...
http://www.amazon.com/Circo-Circo%C2%AE-Car-LED-Nightlight/dp/B005P8HINE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1320164472&sr=8-3
mel
No comments:
Post a Comment