Well we are just about a week into the big girl bed and we have had our ups and downs. The best thing is that Ainsley continues to be excited about going to sleep in her big girl bed. The bad news is that she is just a bad sleeper and I really don't know how to fix that. Pretty much if she takes a nap at all, she won't go to sleep at night. So that means we are lying down with her for hours (this is not an exaggeration) and saying "Go to sleep Ainsley, go to sleep, lie down, go to sleep, close your eyes..."
I am getting very close to gating her door so she just has to stay in there.
She has slept all night 3 times in there, which is way more than she ever did in the crib, so that is a positive. Also, it's easier for me to put her to sleep. I could no longer rock her and then get her in the crib. So just lying down with her is much easier. Of course, I usually end up falling asleep. Lucky for me I don't sleep more than an hour or so at a time and I can sneak away to my own bed.
We have had a couple of funny, cute, maybe sad stories about the big girl bed.
The first night, when she woke up, she just cried for us. So I went to lie down with her again. So the next day we told her that if she wakes up she can come get us. So this has been the progression...
Night 1:
-She slept in her bed from 2 AM until 7 AM alone. Good start. Woke up crying.
Night 2:
-She slept in her bed from 8:30 PM until 2 AM alone. Also not bad. We still have a monitor in her room, even though I'm beginning to think it is no longer necessary. Around 2 I hear a distant crying and "Mommy, are you?" It is not coming from the monitor. I jump out of bed (which is no easy feat at 7 1/2 months of pregnancy) and find Ainsley confused and wandering into the kitchen calling for me. I can't even begin to explain how heartbreaking it was. I brought her to bed with me.
The next morning we explained to Ainsley that if she wakes up and needs us, she should come to our room. We also decided that we would leave our door open and put up a gate to the kitchen so Ainsley can't wander out by mistake and Brinkley can't chew anything.
Night 3:
-She slept in her bed from 8:30 PM until 4 AM alone. Getting better. I wake up after hearing a loud crash. Turns out it wasn't really a loud crash, just seemed very loud being that it was 4 AM and I was sound asleep. Ainsley is standing next to my bed and says "Uh oh mommy, my drop my water." I pull her into our bed and she stays there, but does not go back to sleep, until I get up at 6 to get ready for work. It's the first time in a very long time that I've had to juggle her and getting ready at the same time.
Night 4:
-Took an early nap (seeing that she was up at 4 AM), but would not go to sleep that night. We started trying around 8:30 PM. She fell asleep about 10 PM or so. She was back up around 11:30PM. Bad night.
Night 5:
-Clif and Ainsley went to visit Nanny and Poppa...no data available.
Night 6:
-Took a very early nap (like 10AM-12PM...Clif and Ainsley were driving back, so this happened in the car). So that night only took 45 minutes to get her to sleep. Slept in her bed from 9 PM-ish until 6 AM. Best night so far.
Night 7:
-Took a very late nap. Would not go to sleep. Clif tried from 8:30 until 10. I tried from 10 until midnight. Ok, let's be honest...I fell asleep. When I woke up just before midnight, she was still awake. Went back to sleep. Woke up at 1 and she was finally asleep. I go back to my bed. Remember that we don't have a railing on the bed. At 4 AM we hear a loud thud, but no crying. I get up to go check on her and here she comes, sleepily into our room. Around 5 AM, Clif and I are both awake for some reason so I whisper "Do you think she fell out of bed earlier?" Clif says "I don't know..." Then Ainsley, who we thought was asleep says "My did. My did fall my big girl bed." So there we were at 5 AM laughing hysterically. I asked her if she was ok and she said "Yes, my fine."
Didn't really think we needed a railing after seeing her sleep for a few nights. Maybe we do.
So that's the breakdown. I would like to say we just stop putting her down for a nap and make bedtime a little easier, but Clif really needs that time for job searching. Right now that's a little more important than a quick bedtime.
Hope everyone has a good weekend. We are having friends over on Saturday night and possibly painting the nursery. We'll see. I'm at least going to try and start it.
