Transition

There have been a lot of changes in the MacDonald household lately, and I think it's taking its toll on all of us. But especially on Sutton. He's growing up so fast, and I think all the new stuff going on in his life scares him a little.

When we first moved into our new house, we immediately tried to make Sutton's room as normal and familiar as possible. We hung up his pictures, and we put his books into his little bookcase, and pulled out his comfort items. (I call them the "trifecta"-his blanky, his binky, and his duck) But nighttime was still hard for Sutton. Whenever we would put him into his crib at night, he would cry for about five to ten minutes, then settle down and fall asleep.

Then he learned to climb out.

He's tried to climb out of the crib before, with no so good results. As Dave puts it, he learned that gravity is a constant and a bitch. But this new house has carpet in the bedrooms, where our old house had wood laminate floors.

So I get a call at work last Friday from Dave, who tells me that Sutton woke him up. I say, "You mean with his crying?" "No," Dave says. "He came into the room and woke me up." Uh-oh! Sutton's crib is a convertible crib, so it can be switched to a toddler bed. But Dave wanted to wait until Sutton did it more frequently. Uh yeah, for the next three mornings, Sutton climbed out of his bed and came into our room. Time to switch the bed over.

So, on Sunday, we changed the bed to a toddler bed. And that's when it became a LOT harder to get Sutton down for bed. Usually, he went down anywhere from 7:30-8:00. Now, it can take up to two hours for us to get Sutton in bed.

It's a struggle of reading books, playing with his toys, rocking in the rocking chair, etc. Like last night. It was my first time putting him to bed by myself. Dave had put him to bed on Tuesday night, and said that Sutton cried for an hour. Luckily for me, Sutton was very tired due to a full day at school. He snuggled with me on the rocking chair, then agreed to lay down in the bed with me. I stroked his forehead and rubbed his back. He turned over to his tummy, which was a good sign that he was ready to go to sleep. Which I love, because that's how I sleep. Like mommy, like son.

But when I left the room, that's when Sutton started crying. Sutton's room doesn't have a real door, it has two folding doors. So Sutton can push them open at any time. So we had to start putting a baby gate on the other side on the door. But the noise of setting up the gate wakes him up, and he starts screaming and crying. We're trying to get our landlord to let us put a regular door on his room, but so far no luck.

All you parents out there, please tell me that this transition gets easier. Right now, I hate how upset he gets. I know he thinks that we're leaving him, and he is still not used to his new room. I hope he;ll get over this. Oh, and now, he's showing signs that he's becoming ready to be potty-trained. He tells us when he's pooped. Only he runs in the other direction when we try to change his diaper. One big boy thing at a time. So we'll wait a little longer before we start potty training.

In closing, here are some pictures of Sutton's room.
This is the view from his doorway.
His little toddler bed, complete with the guard rails.
Another view of his bed, with books on the floor.
His adorable Dr. Seuss bedding, which my mother-in-law got for him.
The other side of his room. See the horse on its side? It was a present from my dad and step-mother. It whinnies and neighs when you press its ears. He loves to play with that horse. So much so that we had to cover it with a blanket and tell him that horsie was going night-night, and he had to too.