About two weeks ago, we started transitioning MrMan to his own bed. We pretty much gave up on the crib thing, as it was way too stressful, for all involved. When I was MrMan's age, my parents built a little bed for me. My brothers also slept in it and, between and after its stints as a bed, it served as a bookcase. It's hard to explain how it serves as both, but trust me. So, I boxed up the cookbooks it's been housing for the past almost 20 years, and set it horizontally and moved the mattress from the crib onto it. MrMan's first reaction wasn't quite what we expected. He scrambled up onto it and started trying to jump and down. And then down. And then back up again. It was like he was hopped up on sugar and caffeine (which he wasn't). We were concerned that he'd never see it as a place to sleep.
But within the next couple of days, we moved it to our room, replacing the crib, and started using it for its intended purpose. He naps there, and he usually spend at least half the night there, though he seems to freak out a little when he wakes up and realizes no one is sleeping next to him. I don't blame him.
Today, he was in meltdown mode, so I decided he needed a nap. I guess I was so thrown off by his behavior that I wasn't thinking straight, so I was trying to get him to go to sleep in our bed. He wasn't having it: he just kept wanting to play and read and traipse around the room. When I finally realized the error of my ways and moved us to his bed, he was asleep within minutes.
Posted by Shokufeh at January 13, 2007 11:13 PM