Bed Times

Bed time is not the happy-fun time it used to be.

The vents in Shane's old room banged all night long, so Carrie switched out the furniture between Shane's room and the guest bed room on Monday. It's quite cozy and I'm surprised we didn't set Shane up in there to begin with. Shane slept well the first night (minus waking up early), but he's thrown tantrums whenever he's supposed to sleep since.

Wednesday, Shane discovered he could vault out of his crib. He laid quietly in my arms as I sang and he drank. He rolled over and laid on me for a while as I hugged him. I lowered him into his bed, said "Nighty-night" and closed the door.

Instant screaming.

Five to ten minutes later, I walked up the stairs because Shane's protests shifted to an abnormal tone (I'm well versed in my child's cries at this point). Halfway up the stairway, I heard a thud. The screaming stopped. The remaining steps soared underneath me, I opened the door to Shane's room, and "HI!" Shane came running out of the dark at me grinning from ear to ear.

I had to laugh. I gently put him back in his bed, bade him a good night, and stood outside the doorway. Immediately, I heard the sound of climbing. I needed to see how Shane was getting out. Was he pulling himself up on strength alone? Was there something he was stepping on? The latter meant a quick fix; the former meant a long night.

I paused a second and then opened the door.

Strength alone.

Shane looked up at me from atop his railing. He'd pulled himself up and swung a leg over. Instead of falling off the other side, he dropped into the chair I sit in next to the crib and bounced over with another "HI!"

I called for backup.

Between the two of us, I soothed Shane and Carrie pulled the springs out from under the mattress. It dropped Shane's mattress several inches down to the floor.

He was pissed.

The boy did go to sleep eventually.

Thankfully, Shane stays down well. It's the getting him to go down that's becoming more difficult. Shane will be calm and quiet up until Carrie or I leave the room. Then he stands up and becomes a professional lobbyist of "GET BACK IN HERE OR LET ME OUT!" He used to protest for a couple to five minutes or so. Now, it can take 15 minutes of yelling before he settles down (or longer if you're soft like Carrie and you go to check on him). Each night, I say "I love you! See you in the morning," shut the door, and unless I hear him hurt himself I'm downstairs. It's not callous; it's giving him an opportunity to self-soothe and it works. It sucks to hear the crying, but sometimes that's parenting.

I'm sure this will pass, but it has me scratching my head. Was it the room change? Is it the changing bed time due to Daylight Savings? Did we inadvertently teach Shane crying and climbing is the way to have Mama and Dada come back? The baby book also mentioned that Shane's around the age where imaginations start to get very active. Could my son be developing a fear for the dark? He's got a night-light, but Carrie bought a bigger one just in case.

In a perfect world, we could do an experiment and change one variable at a time and compare to a control to see exactly what's going on. As it is, time waits for no man, so we'll just have to muddle our way through. It only took Shane 10 minutes to settle down today. I started writing this while listening to the wailing over the intercom.

I'm pleased to report that I'm typing this sentence to the blissful sound of a sleeping baby.

Thank you, God. AMEN!