New year, new bed

Will and I have been talking about transitioning Nathan into a bed for months but we always found an excuse to delay it. Honestly, I think we've just been afraid to lose sleep over it. Literally.

For as long as I can remember, Nathan has gone to bed happily, not only for bedtime but also a two to three hour afternoon nap. When he wakes up in the morning, he is content to sing and talk to himself for up to an hour before calling out for us. The thought of losing that was scary. But with a new baby due in less than 2 months, we know our full nights of sleep are about to make their exit so this seemed like as good a time as any. Our hope is that in the next 2 months he will go through any "Wow, I can get out of bed whenever I want, let's go wake Mommy and Daddy up at 2am" phase and be back to sleeping all night. The thought of waking up multiple times throughout the night to feed an infant plus bring a toddler back to his bed bed sounds awful so I'd rather aim to have at least one child who sleeps through the night...again.

We made a big deal about it and let Nathan know how exciting it is to sleep in a "big boy bed." In reality, the bed is not any bigger since all we did was remove the front rail from his crib and attach a guard rail. But to him, it has been very exciting. He helped me pick out a new blanket and pillow and he helped Will "build" the bed. When the night finally came I was so nervous and expected to have a long night ahead of me. I've seen Supernanny enough times to know I would most likely be up for a few hours walking Nathan back to his bed over and over again until I tired him out. So, we put him to bed like we normally do and waited....

Instead, he surprised us by going to bed happily like he has done every other night and sleeping through the entire night.  Tonight is night #4 and once again he went down fine. Naps on the other hand are not going as smoothly. He has been resistant, asking us to rub his back or sleep in the bed with him. We don't know if the sudden freedom is overwhelming or maybe he doesn't feel as safe? We are trying to comfort him and make him feel secure but still remain firm that he has to nap alone, like he has always done.

Today we were back to our regular nap schedule with no tears or stalling so I am hopeful that he is getting more comfortable with his new setup. Although, 4 days seems too easy so we will not be surprised if we hit a few more bumps over the next couple weeks.

Wish us luck over here. I'm 33 weeks on Friday and getting more and more tired each day. I've tried explaining to Nathan that I really, really need the 2 hour nap in the afternoons to rest but he doesn't seem to care. Fingers crossed I get as much sleep as possible before D day!!