The (joys of) cot to bed transition
I jinxed it. Totally. Completely. Utterly.
Last week my husband was in Spain for a long weekend and was only getting back on the Monday, so I thought that this would be the perfect time to do the cot to bed move. It isn't because he is less patient, it's just that I thought I'd take the slack if the move didn't go well and avoid having him losing hours of precious shut eye. After doing night feeds for 12 weeks I thought that losing a few days of sleep would potentially be easy to handle. I also need to live up to my name of All-in-One Mum after all!
We set the bed up on the Wednesday night before my husband left for his trip. What an absolute disaster. Even the new gorgeous Peppa Pig bedding couldn't convince our daughter that her new comfy bed was the best thing since sliced bread. So night 1 was spent in her cot. Epic fail.
My husband left for his cycling weekend and so I carried on with my usual dinner, bath, bed routine but instead of singing nursery rhymes I picked out three books with my daughter to read in her new bed. I asked her to quickly get under the covers and she more or less hopped into bed. Fabulous! This has to be on of my best parent moments so far, being able to lie next to my daughter, tucked up under a pink duvet, reading her a story while twisting her beautiful brown curls in my free hand. I turned off the light and said goodnight and that was that. Toddler asleep at 7.30 p.m. Night 2 was fab. Result!
This wonderful routine and sleeping pattern remained the same right through until Sunday night. I was, in short, pretty damn chuffed with myself. In the words of my daughter, "I did it!". She had successfully moved from cot to bed. Time to breath a big sigh of relief. Hoorah!
Anyway, as I was saying, the move from cot to bed was wonderful, blah, blah, blah. My husband arrived back on the Monday afternoon and ever since then bed time has been a nightmare. It has turned into a two person task which ultimately ends up with both of us admitting defeat and bringing our daughter downstairs until she is completely and utterly exhausted and then us putting her to bed at about 10.00 p.m. when she is shattered. Yes, we tried taking her up periodically but the resultant tears were just too much. I've never been a good one with controlled crying and stuck it out for as long as possible before fetching her and stopping her from getting into a hysterical state. Yes, the toddler won the battle.
Yesterday we thought (naively) that she would be exhausted after spending 2 hours at a group birthday party for her and 15 other 2 year old friends at the Gymboree. Honestly, who were we kidding? There were far less tears but she still didn't go to bed at her usual 7.30 p.m. At about 9.30 p.m. I put my daughter in her bed expecting the worst but she closed her eyes and went to bed which was wonderful.
I'm pretty sure that going to bed at this time and still waking at 6.30 a.m. each day is exhausting her and hopefully this will naturally make her go back to her regular bedtime. It all seems so completely crazy that only a week ago she was happily going to bed at 7.30 p.m. I guess it's all part of her growing into a little person as well as part of the joys of being a parent. It's never boring, that's for sure and I honestly wouldn't change anything for the world.
Ax
Last week my husband was in Spain for a long weekend and was only getting back on the Monday, so I thought that this would be the perfect time to do the cot to bed move. It isn't because he is less patient, it's just that I thought I'd take the slack if the move didn't go well and avoid having him losing hours of precious shut eye. After doing night feeds for 12 weeks I thought that losing a few days of sleep would potentially be easy to handle. I also need to live up to my name of All-in-One Mum after all!
We set the bed up on the Wednesday night before my husband left for his trip. What an absolute disaster. Even the new gorgeous Peppa Pig bedding couldn't convince our daughter that her new comfy bed was the best thing since sliced bread. So night 1 was spent in her cot. Epic fail.
My husband left for his cycling weekend and so I carried on with my usual dinner, bath, bed routine but instead of singing nursery rhymes I picked out three books with my daughter to read in her new bed. I asked her to quickly get under the covers and she more or less hopped into bed. Fabulous! This has to be on of my best parent moments so far, being able to lie next to my daughter, tucked up under a pink duvet, reading her a story while twisting her beautiful brown curls in my free hand. I turned off the light and said goodnight and that was that. Toddler asleep at 7.30 p.m. Night 2 was fab. Result!
This wonderful routine and sleeping pattern remained the same right through until Sunday night. I was, in short, pretty damn chuffed with myself. In the words of my daughter, "I did it!". She had successfully moved from cot to bed. Time to breath a big sigh of relief. Hoorah!
Anyway, as I was saying, the move from cot to bed was wonderful, blah, blah, blah. My husband arrived back on the Monday afternoon and ever since then bed time has been a nightmare. It has turned into a two person task which ultimately ends up with both of us admitting defeat and bringing our daughter downstairs until she is completely and utterly exhausted and then us putting her to bed at about 10.00 p.m. when she is shattered. Yes, we tried taking her up periodically but the resultant tears were just too much. I've never been a good one with controlled crying and stuck it out for as long as possible before fetching her and stopping her from getting into a hysterical state. Yes, the toddler won the battle.
Yesterday we thought (naively) that she would be exhausted after spending 2 hours at a group birthday party for her and 15 other 2 year old friends at the Gymboree. Honestly, who were we kidding? There were far less tears but she still didn't go to bed at her usual 7.30 p.m. At about 9.30 p.m. I put my daughter in her bed expecting the worst but she closed her eyes and went to bed which was wonderful.
I'm pretty sure that going to bed at this time and still waking at 6.30 a.m. each day is exhausting her and hopefully this will naturally make her go back to her regular bedtime. It all seems so completely crazy that only a week ago she was happily going to bed at 7.30 p.m. I guess it's all part of her growing into a little person as well as part of the joys of being a parent. It's never boring, that's for sure and I honestly wouldn't change anything for the world.
Ax
Aww I have been too scared to put mya in a bed! So cot it is, until she tries to climb out! Lol. I will delay my sleepless nights for as long as possible! Keep up the good work! I'm sure with persistence she will settle back into her old routine xx
ReplyDeleteLast night was fab! 8.30pm right until this morning when I had to wake her up at 7.15am to get ready for nursery. Hoorah! I didn't even hear her stir in the night :) x
DeleteIt's never dull and predictable is it?!? ;) Must admit am not getting the sides down until we really have to (i.e. son's throwing himself out..!) Is a brave new world, it sounds like you've done really well with your little lady..well done to you both :) x
ReplyDelete