Sleep

 

I didn't meet my goal of once a week, but this post is coming within two weeks so that is progress!

We don't live very exciting lives so I thought I would break my blog posts into different aspects of raising my almost 2 year old (AH!).  Today is sleep.

From the very beginning Rowan has been an amazing sleeper.  From the time we brought him home he got up every 4 hours if not 6.  He has slept through the night without problems since the first few months.  The only time he has every woken up through out the night is if he was teething and then we just put him in bed with us and he was fine.  We moved him from the sleeper in our room to his crib around 3 or 4 months and at 18 months we took the front railing off of his crib.  He wasn't trying to climb out, but I thought it was time for him to start the transition to a big boy bed.  The first two nights were a little rough with sleeping through the night, but after that no problem at all. 

A couple weeks ago we put our spare twin bed in his room to start preparing baby girls room.  Rowan's room is the bigger of the two kids rooms so we thought it could also serve as the spare room for guests.  I had a feeling though that Rowan would prefer to sleep in the big bed instead of his crib because he sometimes chose to take his nap in our bed instead of his.  We decided to leave the crib in the room as well as the twin bed and see which one he picked to sleep in.  That first night he chose the twin bed and climbed right in.  He slept through the night without a problem.  The next night he fell out of the bed, but went right back to sleep when Ryan put him back in.  No problems since then. 

Our bedtime routine is pretty simple and Rowan does great.  He gets a bath (his absolute favorite activity), pj's, and milk.  Most nights he gets Daddy to read him a few stories or to play a little longer.  We usually give him a time frame for how long until he needs to go to bed.  He doesn't understand, but I feel like it has been a good habit to get into now.  When it is time, whoever is putting him to bed that night tells him to give kisses and then walks him to his room.  He climbs in his bed, we turn out the light and close the door and that is it.  He is out till the morning.  Nap time is pretty much the same except he is more likely to stay awake and play in his room quietly before he falls asleep.  We are still working on getting rid of the pacifier.  We really aren't trying very hard to get rid of it we just set limitations to when he can have it.  He only gets it when he is sleeping or in the car, which usually turns into sleeping.  In the morning I tell him to leave it in his bed and he does until nap time and then again at bedtime.  He asks for it as soon as we get in the car though so I will probably start trying to break him of that habit. 
My biggest concern with all of these transistions was what he would do in the morning or after he woke up from his nap.  When he was in his crib he would just stand in the corner and call for me or sit and read books we left in the crib until I came to get him.  Now he just plays with the toys in his room quietly and when he is ready to come out he bangs on the door.  He is absolutley amazing!  I couldn't ask for a better son. 

He is growing up so fast, but I love watching him grown and learn and can't wait to see how he is as a big brother!

Nicki