Well, the second night of big bed transition, my boy taught me the meaning of "sleep-deprived-autistic-mother". He went to bed alright, and he actually fell asleep in much shorter time than the first night - which was great! When I went in to check on him, this is how he had fallen asleep........
Too cute! Lights were on and everything, but he was all asleep.
Anyway, it was later on in the night that we had some settling issues. I had gone to bed early, for a change, while hubby stayed up to work some more. I don't know how long I had been asleep when my man came into the room to go to bed himself. But when he did come in, he woke me up to tell me that our son had woken up and was rattling his gate. Hubby had tried to settle him, but it didn't work. So up I get to do my motherly duty, and into his room I go to try and settle my son.
Forcing him won't work. It never works. So I wasn't about to do that. I started by reminding him that it was time for sleeping, and that he needed to be in bed. I stabilised the gate again - because he was about to escape it, haha! - and lay down in his bed with him, hoping he would get the message.
He wouldn't stay there. I tried three or four times to bring him back into bed, but he would not have it. So I decided to catch what sleep I could, while he played and decided to return to bed in his own time.
So, he played, and played, and played. Rattled his gate and played some more. Walked around the room. Climbed on the bed and off again, and generally did anything but try to sleep. Periodically, I would get up and try to direct him back to bed, but it never worked. This went on for what felt like quite some time. When he started turning the lights on again, I decided enough was enough. I put him to bed in his cot, put the side up and said goodnight. I went back to sleep in his bed while I waited for him to fall asleep again- which he did in a short time! Then I got up and returned him to his big bed, and went back to mine.
It was about 3am by this stage, and I don't know exactly how many hours I had been up with him, but it felt like 3 or 4.
The next night, it took even less time for him to fall asleep, and he slept soundly till 5am. I was woken to the sound of pitter-patter footsteps down the hallway. Before I opened my eyes I knew who it was by the 'oooff oooff' sounds he was saying. He pushed the covers off me and tried to pull me out of bed. Taking my hand, he led me to the lounge room and wanted to play there, but again, I put him back to bed in his cot this time - Lord knows I just needed those last couple of hours of sleep! He settled well enough, and we got him up in the morning.
Overall, he seems to know now, that his big boy bed is his new sleeping place, despite that I have returned him to the cot a few times. He goes there for rest breaks during the day - which is really sweet to see - and when I say that it's bedtime, he goes to the right place. I am happy with how the adjustment is going. The only thing that is stressing me out now, is resettling him into his big bed when he does wake before time. But I'm confident that will come eventually. Hopefully, it won't be too long before he is truly fully settled into his big boy bed.
Next stop: toilet training!
xx
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