The Bed Conundrum

You never knew how good or easy you had it till it's gone.  We had it good with Jack.  Really good.  Jack slept, like a champ, without needing to cry it out, in his crib until he was 2 and a half and then we forced him into a bunk bed where he transitioned beautifully.  Please note that the entire time he slept in his crib he never, ever, EVER attempted to climb out of the thing.  He just...slept.  

Then we get Lucy.  Beautiful, hilarious, quirky, stubborn, perfect Lucy.  You see, Lucy is like ALL OTHER CHILDREN.  Lucy does not sleep without crying it out.  She has cried herself to sleep every night of her life.  Lucy does not like her crib.  She has climbed out of it and flopped- hard - onto the floor several times.  Lucy made us quickly realize that most children do not sleep well (I'm still having awful flashbacks from her crappy napping starting at 6 months) and that Jack spoiled us big time.  So we are now at a crossroads when it comes to Lucy and sleep.  First we tried this...

Exhibit A: a crib adjustment.  We thought maybe she would enjoy the ability to get out of the crib at her leisure and not feel threatened about the confined state.  To date she has not slept in this crib since we took the side off.  It mocks me daily. Like some glaring symbol of failure pulsating from the corner of the room.  Always reminding me that we will never, ever be sleeping in a crib again.  And I mourn it.

Now we are here.  Exhibit B:  The guest bed in Lucy's room.  It gave me palpitations at first because I was terrified of her rolling off of it.  But after two weeks I finally broke down and bought a bed guard and found that now I can sleep a little easier. (please note, I didn't gamble with her safety out of laziness - half that time involved us being in Jackson so we weren't even home.)

 How a goose sleeps in a bed.  It's precious but comes with its own price.  She can now climb out of the bed at her leisure and there have been several times in the middle of the night when I will feel a tiny tap on my hand and hear the words, "Mommy?"  But when i open my eyes, rather than seeing a head of spiky red hair peering at me, I look down and see a mess of blond hair wanting to climb into our bed.  Once again, adorable but not really conducive to restorative sleep.  There are also problems when it comes to actually getting her to sleep.  It requires laying in bed with her until 8:30 at night until she finally falls into a deep slumber - at which point one must gently crawl off the creakiest bed known to mankind without disturbing her.  The last two months have made both Andy and me question our sanity at times.  But if I can find a silver lining to this sleep insanity, I can say this.  We have been pushing Lucy's bedtime back to insure that she is really really tired and ready for bed to cut down on how much we must lay in bed with her and coax her to sleep (which so far the record for that is 90 minutes) but on the flip side we are starting to align Jack and Lucy's bedtimes.  How is that a silver lining?  That only means that my goal of getting the two of them to share a room soon will become a reality much sooner if they are going to bed at the same time!  I even bought Lucy bedding at Target on clearance the other day in preparation - I'm so pumped!  Especially b/c Jack cannot wait for Lucy to start sharing a room with him.  I even let them try out a nap time together one weekend - at his insistence- and sat outside the door to listen to the conversation that ensued.  I heard a lot of, "No Lucy we need to nap now."  "No Lucy please stop talking, let's snuggle instead."  "Lucy you must be quiet.  Otherwise we won't fall asleep!"  Is it bizarre that my 4 year old still wants to nap but my not even 2 year old has abandoned all hope with that?  It was a failed experiment but the sibling bonding that came from it was well worth it.

So Lucy's sleep continues to be a guessing game/struggle.  But it's temporary.  She won't be two forever (which makes me so sad at times - she so stinking cute at this age.)  I do love this little girl and the cuddle time we get at 4 am is precious - especially when she climbs up into my face, pulls my eyelid back, and asks me, "Do you want to build a snowman?"  How can you not love this girl? :)