Bedtime Struggles

My firstborn, Murielle, was a dream (no pun intended) when we switched her from her crib to a toddler bed. I don't remember her ever getting out of that bed. She never attempted turning the knob on her door even! I do, however, remember her falling out of bed a couple of times during the night, but that was it. Seriously...that was all we had to deal with.

Now, our son, Sam, on the other hand...let's just say...he's not at all like Murielle. I mean, the two of them are alike in alot of ways - they both like to be the boss, they are both very independent - which can cause alot of head-butting, as you can imagine. But they are NOT alike when it comes to sleep patterns.

The switch from crib to bed, for Sam, has been one huge and lengthy ordeal. We're going on more than 3 weeks now and he still gets out of his bed. We have tried different methods...being careful to do each with as much consistency as we can (one week for each), and it has exhausted me to the utmost. Most nights it takes 2 hours before Sam actually falls asleep, and by that time I am so wiped out. The other night I had no idea what I was going to do to fix things because Sam got out of bed TWENTY times in 2 hours! 13 of those times were within the first 45 minutes!! I was breathless from all the running (I was trying to clean up the kitchen and monitor the click of the door opening) to put him back to bed. It was a fun game for him.

But last night, things were a bit different. We removed a few things from his room and, in short, we made it quite boring for him to get out of bed. He was asleep by 8:15pm! That cut 45 minutes off the regular bedtime battle. Then tonight, Sam was asleep, for sure, by 7:45pm.

I mean, I know the kid has got to be exhausted. He gets up at 5:30am, only sleeps an hour and a half in the day and was only getting about 8-9 hours of sleep at night for the last few weeks! That's not enough for a 2 year old.

But hopefully things are looking up. If we're persistent enough, eventually they will learn, right?



Oh, by the way...these pictures were taken last week and on that particular night I wasn't able to sit next to his door to monitor, like I had been. Sam came out of his bedroom at one point wearing Murielle's clip-on play earrings. I was trying so hard not to laugh!!! In my most serious face, I firmly told him to "Stay there! I'm going to take your picture!!", and then sent him back to bed.