The Dreaded Toddler Bed

I'm not sure how the transition to toddler bed has gone for the rest of my mommy friends out there, but for us, it's been hard. Both times. When I was expecting Evan, Santa brought Ryan his "Cars Bed". I had no idea what I was in for. Finally one day in frustration, I got out my screw-driver and reversed the lock on his bedroom door so that I could lock him in there at nap-time. It worked. He went back to bed and don't worry, I always went back in to check on him.

So Evan started climbing out of his crib a few months ago and that crib has seen better days, it's not exactly super-safe. So, I took down the drop-side and have "converted" it in to a toddler bed for him. At least when he climbs out he's not dropping down four feet. He won't stay in his bed. He's been out of his bed as many as eight times in one night. While Colin was away at school last week, I really had my hands full with the bedtime routine. I finally figured out that if I turned the lights off in the rest of the house and locked my bedroom door, he'd give up and go back to bed. It worked pretty well. The first night he cried for about 10 minutes before he crawled into bed with Ryan. The second night it only lasted about 4 minutes. On the third night he actually got into his OWN bed for the night.

I don't usually have to give Evan a nap since he's at the sitter during the week. On Sundays (since we have late church now) he goes down pretty easily. Saturdays are the hardest. I think he fights nap time because Colin and I are home and he just wants to play. Suffice it to say that I almost got my screw driver out again, but in the end I didn't have to.