Brody's New Bed - Days/Nights 4-6

Thursday, April 19th was the 4th day of Brody transitioning to his new bed. During his nap that day I put him to bed awake and he watched me walk out. He started crying and got out of his bed again. He fell asleep on the floor... again! I went back and put him in his crib. That night, Kyle put him to bed. He rocked him and Brody ended up falling asleep. Kyle tried to lay him down without waking him up, but when Kyle put him down he woke up and started crying. He got out of his crib, but did not bang on the door this time! He did, however, fall asleep by the door again. I went in and put him back to bed. He fell asleep and I tried to sneak out but, once again, the door creaked and he woke up, climbed out, and went right to the door and started banging on it. I went back in and calmed him down until he fell asleep again. Try #2 to sneak out failed again because he woke up as I closed the door. I said through the door "Brody, go to bed! Go lay down. You're going to get a spanking." I know that some people are against spanking, and this isn't the time to debate that. We don't "beat" our child, but we do swat his thighs when needed. He continued to cry and bang on the door. I went in and said "No, Sir, it's bed time. Go lay down." and put him to bed. I walked out and he went straight back to the door and started banging again. I opened the door and spanked him and put him in bed. I didn't want to spank him and have him have a negative opinion of bedtime, but I threatened and needed to follow through. I started to walk to the door and he sat up. I told him to lay down or he would get another spanking. He didn't and I took a step towards him and he laid down. I started to walk back to the door and he got up again! This time he started to climb out of his bed. I said "No, Sir. Stay in bed or you'll get a spanking." He got down so I spanked him again and put him back into bed. :( I told him it was night-night time and to go to sleep and stay in his crib. I left the room and was going to wait outside for him to get back out of his crib, but he didn't. He sat up and sobbed for a minute or two and then laid down and fell asleep. This night was rough and bedtime seemed to be getting worse and worse! Why did we take his crib rail down?!

On Friday, I started his nap time at 2:00pm. I rocked him for a while and then put him down. He started screaming and banging on the door. He usually doesn't bang on the door at nap time, just bed time. So, great, it really is getting worse! I went back in and tried to calm him down and he wouldn't even let me put him in the crib! He wanted me to hold him. So I did for a while, and laid with him in his crib, and sat next to the crib rail. It took me until 2:48 to get him to sleep and for me to sneak out. It never took more than 5 minutes to put him to bed with the original crib rail up. Ugh. 

After that rough nap time, I got on my September 2010 forum with mom's who had babies due in Sept 2010 and asked for their help. One mom said to just let him sleep on the floor. I was so worried that he wouldn't sleep through the night, but I decided we had to try something! If Brody got out of bed and fell asleep on the floor again, that's where he was staying! I didn't want him to get into the habit of crying and mommy and daddy going in every time and sitting there until he fell asleep. No!! I know he can put himself to sleep! 

That night, Kyle put him to bed. He rocked him until he fell asleep (something he seems to be doing and I'm hoping doesn't start a bad habit!). When he laid him down he woke up. Kyle walked out and of course Brody went straight to the door banging and screaming. Kyle seemed frustrated and asked what he should do. I said absolutely nothing! We were going to see how this would go without us going in to calm him down. He ended up falling asleep on the floor. I left him there and he ended up staying there and sleeping ALL NIGHT! I heard him wake up once and whine, but that was it. He was out of the view of the video monitor so I couldn't see him all night which made me sad since I'm so used to being able to push a button and see him on the screen whenever I want. Around 8am Kyle woke up and started frantically getting dressed and ran out of the room. He came back and said "Do you hear that?" I listened for a moment and heard banging. I said, "Yeah, it's Brody banging on his door." I got up and walked out of our bedroom and Kyle said "What IS that?" I said, "It's Brody!" He said he didn't think so. I went to Brody's door and heard him kicking the door. He often did this when he would wake up in his crib - he would lay there and kick the rails of his crib talking to himself. Since that morning he had woken up by the door he just kicked the door instead. I walked in and he was all smiles. :) Turns out, Kyle had gotten a call at 5am that he missed. When he heard the banging and saw he had a missed call he thought somebody was banging on our door trying to get a hold of him. After checking the door and finding nobody there, he thought somebody was going by all the windows in our house and banging on them to get our attention. As we found out, it was just Brody, and the 5am call was an accident. What a morning! 

On Saturday, we took a trip down to Northport to visit Grandma and Pap Pap. I took my left over ham down and my mother and I made split pea and ham soup. For Brody's nap that day, he would be in a pack n' play in one of my mom's spare rooms. He usually doesn't mind this much and goes to bed fairly easily. I rocked him for only a few minutes. I probably should have rocked him until he was drowsy, because I don't think he was tired yet. As soon as I stood up to put him into his bed he started crying. Not good. I put him down and left the room. He SCREAMED! I went downstairs and gave the monitor to Kyle, thinking he would stop crying and fall asleep. After a few minutes I could still hear him crying so I checked on him on the monitor. He was in the corner so I couldn't really see him, but I thought I heard him crying for his blanket. I went up and opened the door and he had dropped (or thrown, who knows?) his blanket on the floor outside of the pack n' play. I gave it back to him and he asked for me to pick him up. I held him for a while and I think he fell asleep on my shoulder. I put him down and he resumed screaming. I tried to hush him and tell him I was right there, but he kept screaming. He eventually stopped and I stayed until he fell asleep, but the door to the room he was sleeping in creaked louder than his door so he heard me leave and resumed screaming. I stayed outside of the door and thought I heard him crying for his blanket again. I opened the door and it was on the floor so I gave it back. He reached for me and said "up", but I just handed him the blanket, shook my head, and left the room. He cried for a little while, but eventually fell asleep. 

That night, Kyle put him to bed. He, again, rocked him until he fell asleep. He put him down and, again, he woke up. Kyle laid him down, covered him up, then left the room. Brody got out of bed and went to the door and cried, but didn't bang on the door and didn't cry for mommy and daddy. Not long after Kyle left, Brody fell asleep on the floor by the door. He woke up, happy :), a little before 8am after spending another night on the floor.