Little miss

As of today Jude is officially transitioned over to 100% formula, and it's amazing how much better I feel now that I am not putting most of my time and energy into continuing to breastfeed him.  Happier baby, happier (and saner) mama!  Some of you may have noticed that I have actually started blogging again, now you know why.

But this post isn't about Jude and his feeding issues, it's about the other Munchkin.  About 12 seconds after I wrote this post, Sophia regressed in a big way, and a month later she is now back to sleeping in the crib. Possibly for the rest of her life.

The day after I wrote about Sophia having transitioned to her big girl bed (again!), she woke up with a cold.  For the average human being, that means cuddling up in a blanket with a big box of tissues and steaming mug of tea in hand.  Unfortunately, Sophia didn't get the blanket/tea memo.  When she gets a cold she turns into super-hyper kid, running around the house like a crazy person, and worst of all . . . she doesn't sleep.

Sophia with a cold equals non-sleeping naps, and hearing singing and talking coming from her room long after John and I have gone to bed.  So of course it also equals climbing out of her bed.  Which is quite easy to do when you are in a big girl bed complete with a handy dandy stool pulled up to it.

John and I dealt with the climbing out of bed a couple times the first two nights of her cold.  We walked her back to bed, sternly told her to stay in bed and go to sleep, and that was it.  Then came Thursday night.  Thursday, April 12th.  I remember it like it was yesterday.

Sophia was in bed at 6:30 that night (with usual bedtime being between 6 and 6:30).  We could hear her singing and talking, but it didn't seem to be bothering Jude, so that was fine.

But then we heard the patter of little feet on the floor just before 7.  Out into the hallway she came, to the top of the stairs.  "I'm awake, mama!"  "Back to bed, Sophia, time to sleep."  "Okay, mama," and she headed back to bed.

And got back up . . . and back to bed . . . and back up . . . every few minutes for the next hour and a half.

John and I tried everything we could think of to keep her in bed.  We sat her down for a talking to.  And another.  And another.  We told her she was going to have video privileges taken away the next day.  We tried to reason.  HA!  Not worth your time to reason with a toddler!

We were completely at a loss.  A month later, memory of her antics crack me up.  Not so in the moment.  I'm really not sure how Jude slept thru her noisiness, as neither of my children are particularly deep sleepers.

Sophia varied her out of bed routine, sometimes coming out into the hallway, sometimes staying in her room with the door closed so she could knock on it and then say "Come in!"  Each time John or I would trundle up the stairs to deal with her.  She would hear us coming and whisper a fierce "NO!  Don't come in!" from her side of the door.

What was really ridiculous was that to Sophia, each time she climbed out of bed was as if it was a brand new experience.  I stopped counting how many time she told me "I'm awake!  It's time to get up!" which is what she tells me in the morning when I go in to get her.  Each time I would tell her it was not time to get up, that she hadn't slept ("Yes, mama, I did sleep!"), and that she couldn't get up until it was morning.  "It's morning, mama!"

We gave her ibuprofen, in case some of her cold symptoms were keeping her up.  No go.  Extra stuffed animal in bed.  Board book to read in bed.  "You can read in bed.  No getting up, though!  You can only read the book in bed!"

Ha.

Finally at 8:30, I had enough.  John was trying to get in some guitar practice in the den, and I banged in and told him that if she got up one more time THAT WAS IT!

And she did.  And it was.

Up the stairs we went, tools in hand.  Out of the crib came poor little sleeping Jude.  Out came the mattress.  Down went the frame of the crib, as far as it could go.  The mattress went back in, and in went the Snuggler.  Then the pack'n'play made a reappearance, this time being set up for Jude.  Five minutes of silent but furious activity later, these two frustrated parents had finally gotten the upper hand!  I don't think I can describe how very happy it made me to have finally outsmarted the Snuggler and won that battle, but anyone with kids knows exactly what I mean.

Sophia has been back in the crib ever since, and Jude has been in the pack'n'play.  And I am NOT going to say that she hasn't tried to climb out, because I know exactly what will happen then.  But should she attempt to escape her new sleep prison, I am going to have a crib tent on speed-order from amazon.  At least for when she has a cold.