by Holly
If you are on FB, you know Eli has been sneaking through the house at night and scaring the bejeebers out of us at all hours. From what I'm hearing, this is normal development and the basic gist is 'Welcome to parenthood.' Wow, thought I was already there, but this is a whole new experience.
To start from the beginning, we have been hugely blessed that Eli never tried to climb out of his crib, slept well in the pack 'n play for the 2 months we lived in the travel trailer and transitioned easily to the toddler bed when we moved into this house when he was 15 months old. We've been so proud of his resilience and also the fact that when he wakens, he plays with his stuffed bear and moose or talks to himself until we go get him. That all changed last Saturday, when he showed up next to my side of the bed at 9 am, with Taggy in tow (his blankie). We thought it was adorable that he was big enough to walk to the other side of the house and find us, with such a precious little proud-of-himself grin.
Adorable until that night at 3 am when he repeated his performance. We found out he is Stealth Baby, making no sound whatsoever as he gets out of bed and walks through the pitch dark house to our room and stands staring at me until he loses patience or gets scared and starts wailing. I have never woken so suddenly or sat up so straight in my life. What good is a baby monitor if there is no noise to warn you of these goings-on?? It took only 10 minutes to get him back to sleep in his own bed, but an hour and fifteen for me to calm my heart and reassure myself that he wasn't coming back anytime in the next couple of hours. Justin lay awake feeling the same panic I did.
The next evening I purchased a baby gate. Its a cool, yet expensive, one that has a walk-through feature and extra pieces to adjust to several doorway sizes. It took a degree to assemble it, as the instructions could have been written by a 3 year old and made just as much sense. Needless to say, Eli was already asleep when I got it finished so I couldn't put it up that night. Too bad, b/c here he came about 30 minutes later. It was a rough night.
First night using the baby gate: We showed it to him to get him used to the idea and he didn't care one bit; kept on playing. Went to sleep easily and slept all night. Had to wake him the next morning for school.
Second night using the baby gate: Went to sleep on attempt #2, after calling in the Big Guns (aka Daddy). Slept all night, until 5:30, a full hour and a half before the alarm was set. Thankfully Daddy took his turn and found Eli standing at the baby gate, mad that he was trapped in his room. He got Eli back to sleep in his own bed in just a few minutes and got a little more shut-eye before it really was time to get up.
That brings us to now. I'm nursing a Tall Nonfat Iced Latte w/ One Splenda. Ahhh.....
Any prospective babysitters??
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7 comments:
possibly, but the commute is awful!
We used a baby gate for Rhett but not Noah. I don't remember why and why not. I think I blocked it out.
oh man i'm so sorry! i am really nervous about jonas starting pdo in a few weeks because i think he will have to nap on a mat on the floor. i know for sure he won't stay there. we should do a switch off for babysitting!
LOVE THIS! Oh yes, welcome to the joys of bedtime challenges--when Kyle was a little over 2 and we had moved in to our home in Hutto, we would find him also roaming and coming into our room. We called it protrolling. I believed it was his way of making sure were still here. So many changes had occurred in his life, that I think he was making sure we hadn't changed. It'll get easier and it's a phase! Makenna's over 2 and she's still in a crib. We know she'll probably be worse than Kyle about roaming, so we're not ready yet...
We went the baby gate route in our house too! We did it from the beginnings of the toddler bed. My fear was us leaving the basement door unlocked & him tumbling down or getting outside if we left some door unlocked by mistake!
Christy
I love the post! Oh boy....you mean there are more sleepless nights or should I say interrupted nights ahead!!! Yippeee! :) I'm glad you're paving the way for me...now I know about the baby gate method. ~erin
I always think Eli is older than he is - he looks like such a little man in your pictures.
Good luck with the bedtime woes - I'm sure he'll settle into things once he gets used to the baby gate.
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