I am totally one of those people that when it comes to sleep I need like 10 hours a night. Knowing that is not really realistic when you have kids (ok, really EVER), but I always cherish my sleep.
And when it comes to my kiddos sleeping...well, let's just say in our house I am the "sleep nazi." :)
I am not super duper strict but when it comes to bedtime routines and bedtimes...I don't mess around.
Walker has always been a pretty good sleeper, especially in the last two years and he loves his crib so I kind of just figured that he would go to college in his crib. Ok, not really, but he never complains and never crawls out. Actually, that's not true...when he was 18 months old he crawled out twice. The second time he must have hurt himself because he never crawled out again after that.
The last two weeks Walker has decided that he does not need to go to bed at night and has decided to yell and scream at us for upwards of 45 minutes each night after we put him down in his crib.
One night when he was just wailing I walked in and took a mental evaluation of the crib situation and realized that he was just too darn tall for the crib...maybe he was just uncomfortable curled in weird positions just to be able to fit in his crib.
So, two nights ago we decided to bite the bullet and switch him to a big boy bed.
And boy was he excited!!!! His bed is exactly like his idol's (Jackson) bed so he thinks that is pretty darn cool. And we let him pick out whatever sheets and blankets that he wanted. And he thought that was beyond everything.We really talked up the importance of a big boy bed and staying in your bed and sleeping all night long. I was prepared for the night to be a bust and have him staring at me beside my bedside multiple times that night. And you know what??? The kiddo went down without a fuss AND he slept all night not getting up even one time.
The next day he took a two hour nap in his bed and slept all night again last night.
The only downside is....he has woken up each of the last two mornings at 5:45 a.m. for the day. EEK.
As we carried his crib out to our storage unit on the side of our house I got strangely emotional knowing that Walker is the very last of our kiddos to sleep in the crib. I thought about how far we have come in our parenting, in our marriage, our family and personally. What a blessing these three boys have been. And even though our family is complete, it still made me tear up.
And as we were rounding the corner and Walker came tearing down the hallway on his scooter and slammed smack dab into the side of the crib and made me smash my finger.....I got over the sadness. Just like that. :)