Big Boy Bed

After a few foiled attempts to escape the confines of his crib, Jax is now sleeping in a big boy bed. Okay, actually it's just his crib mattress on the floor, but he's not in a crib anymore. That's a big deal! We had planned to move him into Ava's toddler bed when we moved to Mississippi (she'll be getting a twin bed) but we had to move Operation Big Boy Bed up a month-and-a-half for fear Jax was going to break a bone.

The operation commenced last night. I really expected Jax to take to it well. He loves Ava's bed and is constantly asking to sleep in it. He "helped" Andy take apart his crib and said bye-bye to it when Andy took it out to the dumpster (not wasteful -- necessary, that thing was on its last leg). However, when it came time to actually sleep on it, he just wasn't having it. First, he slyly snuck out a few times -- smiling at me each time he popped his little head into my room. Then, there was the "Great Book Disaster" in which he decided to methodically remove as many books from his shelf as possible. Next, he chose the "shake your groove thang" method, choosing to dance in the dark, by the light of the hall light. After that, we kept the door open but put the gate up so he couldn't escape. That's when the crying began. I don't mind the crying. Well, it's not that I don't mind it, it actually breaks my heart. But, when it comes to sleeping I'm all about letting my kids cry it out, it's a necessary means to an end. I've done it when both were babies and it worked just fine. However, last night was especially painful. Jax cried for 30 minutes, screaming things like, "I want my Mama!" and "Mama, all done sleeping" and "Go bye bye, want to go bye bye." Finally, I caved and went in to hold him and explain to him that I was just in my room. I laid him down, tucked him in and left. Five seconds later, he was crying again. So, I gave in. I trudged back to his room, placed him on his mattress, and layed on the floor next to him. A few minutes later he was asleep... or so I thought. He must have sensed my absence because within five minutes he was back at the gate yelling for me. What was I to do? At Andy's suggestion, I closed the door. First telling the little dude how much I loved him, in case my actions made him doubt. So, he cried. It lasted about 15 minutes. It was some serious crying. But slowly but surely it got a little quieter, meaning he was moving further from his door, and eventually into his bed. Once he hit the bed, he was out.

Naptime today was quite a bit better. We did our normal naptime routine, I closed the door, he cried for 10 minutes, then it stopped. When I went in to check on him, here's what I found:

Conked out!

He'll get the hang of it. To be honest, I'd much prefer he cry because of the new bed, than cry because he broke a bone trying to climb out of the crib. The good news is, he does love his big boy bed for jumping!