Last week

Well, I knew multiple blogs in a week wouldn't happen all the time.  And last week proved me correct. 

This little angel:

This was taken at about 10:30pm.  Clearly he's exhausted.

cute as he might be, decided that sleep was not necessary.  Saturday night was completely normal, nap on Sunday was completely normal, but come Sunday night, "normal" went out the window.  As did sleep. And any minute amount of brain function I had left.

He wouldn't go to sleep, cried when I would put him down in the crib, and immediately climb out.  A few weeks ago he started climbing on the front of the crib pretending it was a "hor-hey!" and while I considered more drastic measures, at the advice of a childhood friend I tried putting him in a sleep sack to keep him in the crib.  And it worked! Until, that is, Sunday night.




I put him in the most restrictive sleep sack I had.  Seriously . . . the kid could barely lift his foot to step up the 6" from our sunken living room.  Yet he could get out of the crib.  And since he's such the over-achiever, he also knows how to open doors. So every time I put him in the crib, he'd immediately come out . . . of the bed and the room.  Clearly something had to give.

Long story short, we got about 4 hours of sleep Sunday night.  And it didn't improve Monday during nap time.  Did I mention this is the child who routinely gets 11+ hours of sleep a night and 3 hours at nap time?  Or that I'm 34 weeks pregnant???  Yeah.  It was lovely. 

So, Monday night, it all started again.  The crying.  The screaming.  And that was just me. I was exhausted.  He was exhausted. And although he could still get out of his bed, I had put the door knob cover in his room, so he couldn't get out.  He screamed for a minute, cried for about 2, kicked the door for a bit to make sure we all knew he was not happy.  And then . . . then there was silence.

I debated whether to leave him on the floor or not, but decided to put him back in bed.  And he stayed there.  Until 2:30am.  Luckily he had fussed a bit as he woke up, or I might have freaked out when a blood-curdling scream sounded throughout the house.  It was enough to even wake up Rich.  {And that says a lot!}  I watched the monitor, waiting to see him reappear.  And after a few minutes, he did.  He first tried to climb up the front of the crib {wasn't happening} and then moved to the side where he could first climb onto a Rubbermaid tub housing clothes and pulled himself up. . . and proceeded to flip feet over head into the crib.  And then . . . silence.  I knew I didn't want to interrupt him putting himself back to sleep, but there was also a part of me that was concerned he had snapped his neck during the re-entry.  At that moment, the deliriousness of sleep deprivation won and my actual thought was, "well, if he paralyzed himself there's nothing I can do about it now."  HA!

So, on Tuesday, the front of the crib came off so at least he could get back in safely.  Oh, and a crib tent order was placed.  He actually did remarkably well with the new found freedom and grasped the concept of getting back into bed to sleep.

But, we were still screaming at bedtime and he was up super early.  Not ideal.  Plus, unless I was going to completely strip his room of everything, he - nor I - was ready for the inevitable injuries.

And then, around rolls Wednesday afternoon.  Glorious, wonderful Wednesday. 

It's {so!} not pretty, but it works.  It contained both boys while they jumped, bounced, and even withstood the dexterity of a 4 year old trying to get out.  Didn't happen.  Praise God {and whoever the genius who developed these is!!} the wild child is contained.

He cried Wednesday night for a few minutes, and although I heard him a few times during the night, we both slept well {except, of course, G was up at 1:30 because his ear hurt. It never ends, does it??!}.  And it's only gotten better since.  Friday morning he slept until 8:45 {normal for him} and when he woke up he laid there and played with his belly button while he sucked his fingers.  A totally normal morning. 

After only a few nights, he no longer cries when I put him down and sleeps soundly all night.  I don't know what happened between Saturday and Sunday night last week, I'm just glad that it's over.  And even though I never would have imagined owning one of these contraptions, it has been a life - and sanity - saver.  Long live the crib tent!