DO NOT LET YOUR KIDS GROW UP.
I REPEAT: DO. NOT. LET. YOUR. KIDS. GROW. UP.
Today I bought a toddler bed ($49, K-Mart) without even considering the consequences.
I knew it was time; she had climbed out of her crib on several occasions in the last few months, she even broke the top railing in an anger soaked rage trying to get out of her container. Yet, all the while I was assembling the beast, reading the directions as a last resort of course, and thanking the stars above that she was napping in her crib so I could swear unfettered for the hour it took me to turn 17 thousand pieces into one small bed, I never once considered that this milestone for her means a whole new world of terror for me.
I found out at bedtime, which took two hours longer, she didn't want to go to bed; she wanted her crib back (which is now disassembled and in a storage room downstairs); there were monsters; she was afraid of something; she wanted me to sleep in her bed with her.
She even visited my room, all by herself, four times. And each time I checked on her, she was sleeping on the floor three feet away from the bed.
We. Are. Doomed.
So now I can't sleep. Jed's on the road and I'm afraid she'll go sleepwalking down the stairs. (Jed took down the gate so we could have the floors refinished), and if she locks her bedroom door as an experiment I'm nearly 100 percent sure I'll have to get the fire department here to get her out.
So there it is, a turning point inside a turning point. School's coming up next month. *sigh.
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming; Tomorrow, if I get some sleep, I hope to tell you more about the Maine excursion, which will heretofore be known as the school of hard knocks. ...
5 comments:
Not more than ten minutes after my son's "big boy" bed arrived, he and my older daughter decided to jump on it (well, what else would you use a bed for besides jumping?!). No sooner had I gotten up to warn them against the dangers of jumping on beds, and my son (then 2) fell off and suffered the worst bloody lip imaginable. A trip to convenient care told us no stitches were needed, thank goodness. Our third is staying in the crib as long as possible!
We went to big boy bed and we've had a nightly visitor since last Thanksgiving. It's getting better, only once or twice a week, but we've had a couple heart stopping moments. He was missing from his room one night and we found him asleep on top of a book with buttons, the kind that make noise. This was a construction book with a hammer button, tap tap tap, tap tap tap. Since he was asleep on top of it, that tapping was continuous, and it sounded just like the blinds tapping against our sliding glass door to the backyard when the door is open. We thought someone came in and stole him, leaving the door open after stealing away into the night, until we realized he was curled up in a little ball under a blanket on the couch. The gate went up at the top of the stairs that day.
It does get better.
I would just like to take this moment while she's napping (finally) to thank you both for the encouraging reports. And to offer thanks in advance to anyone wishing to offer their experiences, so long as they help me sleep at night. (Kidding, if you want to tell me horror stories, fire away.)
Oh she doesn't look one bit happy in that picture!
My kids jumped on thier new beds too. Good luck and I hope you both get some sleep.
this is a terrifying notice of things to come.
my inner fearmonger prays for your sanity.
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