Toddler Bed

I braved Black Friday to go out and buy a Toddler Bed and Baby Gate. I was determined to get this sleep thing under control. I put the gate up on Evan's door and put the bed together myself while Scott watched the UT / A&M game.

I planned to read to Evan in his new bed at bedtime but he fell asleep with Scott in front of the TV. That was the first sign that things were not going my way. Evan was placed in his bed, along with his favorite stuffed animals, and I scattered some of his books and toys around the nursery so he could entertain himself if he woke up and didn't want to stay in his new bed.

Scott and I turned in around 9pm---still exhausted.

I guess about an hour after that, Evan woke up very upset. From then on, it was all about Scott trying to placate Evan. Sometime in the middle of the night, Scott brought the air mattress into the nursery and slept next to Evan's bed. Didn't stop Evan from waking up, though, to make sure Daddy was still next to him during the night.

I got to hear all of this. The nursery is next to our room and they might as well have been in the same room as me. Still no good sleep.

Evan woke up around 5:30am, as usual, all perky.

I am annoyed.

Chilly Thanksgiving

Well, earlier this month it was Scott's birthday. I baked him a chocolate cake and we went out to eat while my sister babysat Evan. I miss going out to nice restaurants. We need to get out more.

I wondered if it was going to be cold on Thanksgiving. With the very warm temperatures we've had this Fall, I didn't quite believe the weatherman when he said it would turn cold overnight. Sure enough, it did.

I cooked Thanksgiving dinner here and had my sister over to eat with us. Scott and I are exhausted. We haven't had a decent night's sleep in about a week. Scott had the great idea to go to his family's yearly early-Thanksgiving / Reunion out in Abilene and then travel on to New Mexico to visit more with other members of his family. I didn't think it was such a hot idea b/c Evan is into EVERYTHING nowadays and we never sleep when we have to travel with him. Scott felt differently, so I acquiesced. We, of course, ended up not sleeping for the entire trip (Evan tosses like a fish and wakes up continuously when he's in a new environment) but we looked forward to getting some rest when we got home.

The first night home, though, Evan learned how to climb out of his crib and went running through the dark house, screaming his little head off. Scott took the box spring off the guest bed and thought we could let Evan sleep on the guest mattress temporarily until we got a toddler bed. He woke up, running around screaming again. The next night, Scott lowered the crib mattress to its lowest setting and declared that there was "no way he [was] going to climb out of that". That night we put him back in his crib and, guess what, same thing happened again.

The problem is that he can't climb back into the crib and is so upset that he won't go back to sleep. We try to let him sleep with us but he tosses like a fish. He has a little cold and gets very congested at night, too. Nobody is sleeping and we are all cranky.

I am going out today to buy a baby gate and toddler bed. We are probably going to have to go through a few more sleepless nights while he gets used to the new bed and being "gated" in his room.

Oh well.