The Big Boy Bed Update

What a time of change in our household. Not only are we less than a month from having a new baby, but we have also undertaken several major changes with Anderson as well. Probably the biggest change being his transition to the "Big Boy" bed. We took the plunge two weekends ago and moved Anderson to his new big boy room. We started on a Friday night just in case we were in for an all-night battle...good thing we did that! Friday night was BRUTAL! He has been playing in his new room for weeks now and was quite used to it, but that is very different from sleeping in it. I basically left no toys or books in the room so that he would not just stay up for hours after we closed the door. I also child proofed everything. We secured the bookshelf and the dresser to the walls with anchors, put child locks on the dresser drawers so he couldn't drag all the clothes out or try to climb up open drawers, literally nail gunned the pictures and letters into the wall, put a lock on the closet door, and replaced the plug covers with the kind that slide a cover over the outlet automatically if you unplug something. I even got an automatic cool touch night light...just in case he should try to torch the place! HA! We took he video monitor we got for Lydia and put it in his room for now so we could check on him without opening the door. We watched as he got up and down up and down...played in the floor, etc...

He refused to settle down and we sort of enacted a version of the Ferber method where we let him cry for 5 minutes then went in to check in on him...the next time was 7 minutes...then 10 minutes etc... during this process I sent Jeff to the drug store for something and I listened out for Anderson. Almost immediately his crying just escalated. I knew something was wrong so I went and stood outside the door. He was full out screaming by then and saying "Spooky mommy...too dark....spooky...I want my mommy" Sure enough I checked under the door and not one shred of light flickered. My fancy "automatic" nightlight went out for no reason whatsoever. I slung the door open and there was my baby boy curled up in the floor (my guess is he couldn't see how to get to the door) in the pitch black dark screaming so hard I thought he was going to stop breathing. I cried...he cried and then I just took him back to his bed and got in it with him. Jeff comes home to find me in the bed with Anderson. He was like..."we said we weren't going to give in to this". Then I started crying and telling him what happened. Well about 2 1/2 hours later and lots of bedtime stories and reassurances from mommy and daddy he finally tuckered out. We went to bed and thought it was done...not so much...at 2:00 am he woke up screaming. I flew out of bed and we started the process all over again. He went to sleep at 4:30am...ugggg. I swear I think it was the nightlight. If that hadn't happened I don't think he would have been so scared, especially in the middle of the night. The next night he still had a hard time settling in, but eventually went to sleep around 9:00 and slept all night. By the third night he was in bed asleep by the normal 8:00/8:30 time frame and has slept well every night since then.

Two nights ago as Jeff was putting him to bed Anderson kept telling him there were animals outside...as in big scary animals. Jeff told him the only animal outside was Atticus, our dog. Then Anderson looked up at him and said "Daddy...Atticus scares the animals away?" Jeff, of course, said yes that Atticus was there to protect him from the animals. Anderson just kept repeating "Atticus will scare the animals away" over and over again like it was his little mantra. Then the next morning it was the first thing he said again. Bless his heart I think his imagination is really developing and going into overdrive!