My Bed at Last

Last night was the first in a week that I slept in my bed the whole night through. I got home from an event around 9:30 and after a brief scream-a-thon and some vomiting (Eloise sure knows how to welcome me home), she slept soundly until 6:30am. At which time she padded into our room exclaiming, "I did it!" Yes, you did it sweetie, you finally figured out how to get out of bed on your own. And open your fully closed bedroom door. Crap.

Since coming down with this bug Eloise has been waking up calling for me more than usual and crawling into bed with her seemed to be the easiest solution. But in the course of this week I have learned a few things about sleeping with my toddler, sick or not:

1. A toddler rail is constrictive and quite uncomfortable to be pushed up against.
2. For someone so small - seriously, Eloise weighs around 23 pounds - she sure takes up a lot of room.
3. There is such a thing as too many pillows. Placed to keep Eloise in they sure do a great job of pushing me out.
4. Her bed is just too hard.

On Friday I will finally be purchasing Eloise proper linens and a nice, soft mattress cover since I'm certain this week's events are only the beginning of nights spent sleeping in her bed. Keeping her from crawling out and coming into our room though, I'm not so sure there's a solution to that.

Bedtime Babble

Now that I'm the one to put Eloise to bed I get to enjoy the babbling she does just before going to sleep which is equal parts hilarious and endearing. Bed time involves a number of very important components: a bottle of milk (must be warm), her chosen peeps, Piggy, Pengin, Teddy Bea, and three blankies named Big Cozy, Ittle Cozy and Sof Cozy. When she is finished with her milk she passes it to you with a simple, "thank," and starts in with her bedtime babble.

In her own words:

"Oh mummy snugga. Hiii mama, hiii cozy. Ittle cozy? No. Oh big cozy. Snugga."

Rolls around a bit, gets comfy.

"Aunty Di seeping. Maaaamaaaa ... snugga. Hi auntie Di, seeping her bed. Nighhh nighhh."

Rolls over and kisses my nose, puts her arms around my neck.

"Mama's here. Ehwheez snugga ith you. 'Snice."

Lifts the covers and looks underneath.

"Knees, unda there? Hi knees. Head, shoulda, knees, toes, eyes, ears, mouth, nose."

Starts shuffling around, looking for the right peep and 'cozy'.

"Pengin pease."

I pass the Penguin.

"No Pengin."

He ends up on the floor. She finds her Teddy.

"Oh hi Teddy Bea. Miss you Teddy Bea. Nigh nigh. Sof cozy snugga."

She holds her teddy and the blanky close then lifts her head, kisses me on the lips and flops back down. She rolls around a few more times, sighs and then, silence.

I wouldn't trade special bedtime moments like this for anything.

Work in Progress

Big Girl room work in progress.

Eloise has not yet figured out how to get out of her big girl bed, and thank goodness. She can climb in by herself and happily plays in her bed throughout the day, but when she wants out she calls for me. I plan to keep it this way for as long as possible.

First time in our trying bedtime experience over the last year I am actually the one who manages to get Eloise to sleep in under an hour. I've got naptime down to a 15 minute process and if I do bedtime it takes me around 30. Unfortunately, the only way to get her to sleep is to lie down in bed with her. I know, slippery slope. But here's the thing, if lying down with Eloise gets her to sleep quickly and without any tears, then what is the harm? I figure in about 12 years she's going to want nothing to do with me so I'll take all the snuggles I can get.

The biggest issue we've had with Eloise's transition to her big girl bed is that she's started waking up in the middle of the night again. We've tried to just leave her cry but when she calls for us over and over saying "scared" (or starts doing the dreaded cry-cough) we can't just leave her. Chris and I have alternated between sleeping in her bed but last night I remembered to turn on the nightlight and she slept for a solid 11 hours. Why did it take me so long to figure this out?

Her new room is still very much thrown together. We haven't picked out her linens or hung things properly on the walls and come spring her bed will be getting a very lovely coat of pink paint. Still, she loves her very own Big Bed and although getting her to sleep is still a work in progress (but isn't it always?), this transition was the right choice.

Big Girl Bed

I've just put Eloise down for night two in her big girl bed, and I did it all by myself. It took some time of course, but as soon as I gave in to, "Mama, 'ie down," she went to sleep and we won't see her until morning.

The transition from crib to big girl bed has been surprisingly seamless. Not that she was a huge crib fan anyway - my girlfriend Sarah put it best, lowering them into the crib was like lowering them into a shark tank - but I figured that there would be some resistance. Instead, the bed is exciting and whenever we're in her room Eloise just wants to be on the bed, lying down. Or jumping. Regardless, this is a very good sign.

Chris took last night's inaugural big girl bed run and highly recommended against lying down (aka 'ie down' in Eloise speak) with her for the sake of not being able to get out again (toddler bed rails are a tricky obstacle). Well Love, creaky bed slats aside, you forget that I am much more agile than you.

I think I've just earned a glass of wine. And a bowl of ice cream.

A Game Changer

Last night's performance by Eloise was ridiculous. It took Chris more than an hour to get her to sleep in the first place, and once she was, the transfer into her crib resulted in projectile vomit. All over the carpets we had cleaned on Friday. Obviously.

That's a pretty smug look, missy.

If you've been reading this blog for a while you already know that Eloise's sleep has been a struggle since the beginning. In part I blame myself for going to her too quickly in the early days, but in some ways I can't blame anyone because Eloise was simply a very small (four and a half pounds), early (I delivered at 36 weeks) baby and she had a lot of catching up to do. For many months she needed to eat every two or three hours and though it was never a problem for us to get her to sleep, it was a problem to get her to stay that way.

As soon as Eloise was eating enough during the day she went from waking up often to eat to sleeping for eight hours straight. The solution then was food. The solution now, I'm not too sure. In the last year we've tried everything. Rocking her in the glider, rocking her in the rocking chair, lying down with her in our bed and crying it out, too. Unfortunately, the least successful of these has been crying it out because it almost always results in Eloise throwing up, completely negating the point of helping her self soothe.

Of course she's interested in spending time in her crib now. It's only been 22 months.

So what we have now is a 22 month old who needs to be held until she is dead asleep and can only be placed in her crib when she's ready. And even then only sometimes successfully. My parents have their own magical methods that Chris and I can't figure quite out. My Dad is known as the Sandman and Eloise will ask for my Mom when I'm trying to get her down and she's really sleepy; it's like she knows I'll never be able to seal the deal like Gaga or Papa can.

Anyway, the point of all this is that last night was a game changer. It showed Chris and I that we need to try something new so today we went out and bought a twin sized mattress. Chris and my dad assembled Eloise's big girl bed this evening and the mattress arrives on Tuesday. Let's just hope this is the change we need.