When Ghetto is Fabulous

I posted before about Braedyn's sudden sleep issues and him waking in the middle of the night. Well, we tried multiple different things to cure this; however, we were unsuccessful. He kept waking up at night and we had to walk him back to his bed about 4 times. That is the pits - especially when you're dealing with a newborn. And add to all of this the fact that he started waking up at 5:00 am without any intentions of going back to sleep, and the end result is a very, stressed-out Mommy!

So armed with my hormonal stress (and my bottle of wine), I scoured the internet researching this topic. My conclusion was this: 1) Braedyn was too big for his toddler bed and since he moved around so much (he loves to sleep sideways?!), the bumping into the head/foot board, side rails and walls were constantly waking him; and 2) He temporarily forgot how to put himself to sleep at night since Mommy got in the habit a few months ago of rocking/holding him until he fell asleep. (I know, Bad Mommy!)

In a complete act of desperation, I took apart his toddler bed as I felt this was the main source of the problem. I dragged the spare bed's queen-size mattress into his room and put it on the floor. Along with this, I told Ben we had to go cold turkey with the Cry-It-Out method, as I could no longer struggle for 20 minutes each night getting him to bed... let alone taking him back to bed several times a night. So after Braedyn's nightly routine (bath, books, bed), I kiss/hug him night-night, turn the light out and close the door. And the end result....

... a very ghetto-fabulous looking toddler room. But aside from that, since implementing our new sleep strategy three nights ago, Braedyn has slept through the night and is once again getting his 11+ hours of much needed sleep. He awoke only once, and cried for just a few seconds before falling back to sleep. AND, he stays in bed until I come and open his door in the morning. Can you say HALLELUJAH!! Fortunately for us, the Cry-It-Out method didn't take long to take effect (he never cried for more than 1-2 minutes) - probably because Braedyn truly knows how to put himself to sleep, he was just taking advantage of me since he knew he could (seriously, the manipulation starts very young!!).

So I'm offering a great deal to anyone interested in a queen-size boxspring (without the mattress) and a beautiful cherry wood toddler bed (you know, the toddler bed I spent hours researching... I mean, no one said that all my research would end up being useful).

And in closing, here is a recent picture of Baby Chase. Yup, you guessed it, another picture of him sleeping. Learn to deal with it, because it'll probably be a few weeks before you see a picture with his eyes open!