When I started this entry it had only been 5 nights. Last night marked night 7...

It has been 5 nights since we have forced Carter to sleep and stay in his bed all night. I am pretty sure not many people will actually want to read this but I would like to write this entry more as a journal entry so I have it for my memories. I plan to eventually print these blog entries and make it into a scrap book/journal so when my children are grown I have this to look back onto and remember all the good times and stages my children have gone through. So, that being said, here is the time line and struggles we have gone through with this transition...

How did the decision to do this finally come about?
Since day 1 Carter has been a co-sleeper. The second night in the hospital the nurses had Carter in the nursery for a couple hours and then woke me to say, he won't stop crying or go to sleep, he needs you. That was it. I was stuck. When I got him to sleep and moved him to his own tiny bed he woke and cried for me. When I got home it was no different. For the first week and a half I slept sitting up so he could sleep on my chest. I was a very light sleeper before Carter, he made me sleep even lighter. The slightest movement or noise woke me up. I do not turn over or move in my sleep. If I move, I do it completely awake. We continued to try a crib and rocking bassinet but nothing worked. I could not move to our bed because Craig was just too afraid that he would roll over and hurt Carter. For that first month and a half I slept on the couch with Carter. At first I was on my back and he slept on my stomach. He quickly got too heavy to do that so he would sleep on the inside of the couch and me on the outside. (the back cushions come off so there was more than enough room for the two of us) After a month and a half I got him in the bassinet. I finally got to sleep in my bed and he slept next to me. That did not even last a week. He caught a small cold and was back to needing me. We ended up getting a co-sleeper bed for him that was surrounded with hard plastic walls and covered in soft cushy fabric. That seemed to work. He was still with me but safe in his own little bed. But like everything else, he quickly outgrew that too. By that time he was big enough that he had a presence in our space so it was a little safer to co-sleep. By 8 months he was moving all around the bed in his sleep and kicking us all night long. We made a makeshift bed that was next to ours. That was not good enough for him. He had to be in our bed with us. At 9 months he was not sleeping well at all and we decided to try the crib again. (we tried all the time but this time we put a lot more effort into it) He was ready to sleep on his own. It lasted for a few months. Whenever he got sick he would end up back in our bed and we were right back to where we started. It was a horrible cycle we were in. We did not get much sleep ever. Eventually he was back in our bed. He had learned how to climb out of his crib. We even lowered the mattress to the floor. Over the short 2 years 10 months since Carter has been in our lives we have rarely slept through the night. For the past several months Carter has woken at 2am like clockwork. A few months ago we would have him fall asleep with us, we would move him to his twin bed that is in our room and at 2 he would be back in bed with us. Finally last Monday night I had had too much. We had a rough night with him and he pushed me off the bed and kicked me all night long. I made the decision that morning to try forcing him to fall asleep in his bed on his own with us in ours. I was really unsure how well this would go over. Would he cry, would he stay there, would I give in?

Night 1...
Well that night, Tuesday, I was doing laundry and had a lot of laundry folded on the bed. Carter knows I really do not like when he climbs on the bed and messes up the laundry. He will give me this mischievous look and jump up and down sending all my folded laundry flying. That night I gave him quite a few warnings and he would not listen. Finally I put him in time out. He was refusing to stay in his bed for his time out and I was frustrated, just wanted him to listen and sit there for a quiet moment. I put him in his bedroom and put up a gate. He did not like that. He screamed and cried "Mommy, sorry, sit in bed. Want Daddy!" This went on for a few minutes. He is strong enough to pull down the gate and that is just what he did. I struggled with him to put it back up. Craig convinced me to let him out of his time out. I told him only if he goes in his bed and stays there. Carter agreed. He climbed in his bed and laid down. I explained to him that from now on he was going to fall asleep in his bed by himself like a big boy. I was doubtful that when it came time for Craig and I to go to bed that Carter would fall asleep without snuggling in our bed. Carter has not fallen asleep at night without snuggling since he was 9 months old. But he did. He woke at 2, as usual. I told him I would lay with him until he fell back asleep and he agreed. I was back in my bed within 15 mintues. He slept until 7:30 that morning. I was impressed.

Night 2....
The night before had gone better than I had thought so I had high hopes for night 2. Never have high hopes for an unpredictable 2 year old! He asked to go in Mommy's bed and snuggle but I explained that he was a big boy now and he had to sleep in his big boy bed all by himself. He was not going for it but all I had to do to change his mind was ask him if he wanted to sleep in his bedroom or his big boy bed. I told him those were his only two options and he quickly, without hesitation chose his big boy bed. He climbed up there all on his own and went to sleep. I thought, hmmm this might just work. That was until 2am and my hopes were shattered. He woke crying for milk. The rule is, in the middle of the night he can only have water. No milk. If I gave in to the milk I would end up waking at 2am every morning and heading downstairs to fill a cup of milk. He continued to cry for milk and I said, no only water. He then cried to snuggle. I made the first mistake by doing what I did the night before, climbing into his bed to get him back to sleep. I stayed there, he quickly fell asleep but it was not a deep sleep so within one minute of me being back in our bed, he was awake crying again. I put my foot down and told him you need to fall asleep on your own like a big boy. He did not like that. He cried for about 2 hours. Craig wanted me to give in. Reminded me he had to go to work in the morning. I did not want to take 2 steps backwards when I had gotten this far, so I refused to give in. Craig spent the rest of the night on the couch. Don't feel too bad for him, our couch is very comfy to sleep on. In fact, when he woke he told me how great he slept. Carter cried, threw quite a few fits and screamed for two hours. Not once climbing out of his bed. I just stayed in my bed pretending to ignore it all. It worked, he tired himself out and fell asleep on his own. He slept til 8:30 that morning.

Night 3...
We got to bed late because we were at the Deven's fireworks. I was concerned about this throwing our routine off but it didn't. On the way home I reminded him he had to sleep in his big boy bed by himself and he objected. I reminded him of his 2 options, his big boy bed or his bedroom. His big boy bed was again his preference. We got home, he climbed into bed and fell asleep all on his own. He did not wake at 2. He did wake at 5am but that was because he sat up in his sleep and on the way down he hit his chin. I went over, kissed it all better with my magic Mommy powers and told him he needed to go back to sleep like a big boy and he did. He slept until 8:30 again.

Night 4...
We were out late again because of the 4th of July celebrations. This time Carter did not need to be reminded of his options. We told him to climb into his bed and he happily did. I gave him his hugs and kisses and he gave me mine. I said goodnight, he said mmmhhhhmmmm. That was that. He fell asleep on his own, no fuss. Slept straight through until 7:30.

Night 5...
It is night 5. We headed up to bed at 8pm. I just loaded pictures from our day onto the computer and I was anxious to take a look. Carter enjoys looking at the pictures too so I told him he could sit with me in my bed, look at the pictures and then he had to get into his bed. We looked at the pictures and as soon as I was done I said, ok in your bed. We both climbed out of my bed and he into his. Gave our lovins and that was that. It will be interesting or maybe exhausting to see if tonight he wakes up at 2. You see, those two nights that he did not get up, night 3 and 4, I had to give him motrin because he had very active days and I was concerned about his legs being achy in the middle of the night. I have no idea if he slept through the night from the motrin or because we went to bed so late or if his sleep pattern is changing. One of the doctors at his doctor office told me, once he falls asleep with no intervention from us, meaning he can fall asleep without us, that he will begin sleeping through the night. (a parent can dream can't they?) Tonight, Night 5, I did not give him any motrin. I may end up regretting it at 2am. He had a very active day running around with his cousins, swimming, jumping but I know I need to face the 2am battle on a night that Craig does not have to work the next day. So we will see. 2am is just 3 hours away...Good Night! It is the next day... He slept through the night. At 3am he did cry out my name in his sleep but never sat up. Stayed asleep. He woke at 8:15 after sitting up in his sleep and hitting his lip and head on the way down. I am not quite sure how he managed that but he did.

Night 6...
It is 9:30 and he is in his bed. He gave me a little bit of a hard time. Asking to stay in our bed but I stood my ground, reminded him of his options and he chose his bed. Thank Goodness. We will see what tonight brings. Sweet Dreams! Ok, it is morning. I woke to hearing Carter making some crying noises on the floor. This was at 6. I told him to come lay with me. (I was not ready to get up for the day). He ended up falling back asleep and slept til 8:30.

Night 7...
Tonight marks a whole week of Carter sleeping on his own. It is going so much better than I could have imagined. Craig wanted to snuggle with Carter in Carter's bed but I couldn't let him. If he did then Carter would soon expect that we lay with him. All that work of getting him to fall asleep on his own would be for nothing. Carter stayed in his own bed, fell asleep all on his own around 10ish. I am happy to report he slept through the night again. A little while back we met with one of the Doctors from Carter's doctor's office and I brought up the fact that Carter does not sleep through the night. He wakes up at 2am every night. The Dr. then asked if Carter fell asleep with intervention. Meaning, he needed us to snuggle him for him to fall asleep. I told him yes. He then said, until you change that he will continue to wake every night. He made some suggestions of letting him cry and making him go to sleep on his own. I was not ready for that. Even if it meant sleeping through the night. Thank goodness 7 nights ago I was ready. I was skeptical about the sleeping through the night thing but after only a couple nights of Carter putting himself to sleep he began staying asleep all night. We are all now getting a much more restful sleep. Craig and I are not being kicked and forced to the edge of the bed anymore and Carter's sleep is not being disrupted by us having to constantly pick him up and move him back to the center. Let's just hope he does not catch a cold or something that lands us back to where we were.