We've Converted.

4th of July pics aren't on the computer yet, so enjoy these randomly placed pics my sister took of the Little Man a few weeks ago. He was against the overalls, hat, and the 101 degree weather, so the picture session we wanted turned into 2 minutes of quickly trying to get any kind of shot we could. It was a lot easier to take pics when he didn't move around and discard clothing...

Explanation of our brief disappearance: Family coming to visit, One year molars FINALLY cutting through, and another full week in OKC. Ridiculous, I know. If I would have posted a blog during these past couple of weeks, but it would have just stated three words... I am tired.

We also have some breaking news here at the McD house. Little Man learned a new trick, and this mommy was not too excited about it. Camden the Dinosaur has turned into Camden the Monkey because dinosaurs do not climb out of cribs and Monkeys do. That's right; Little Man can officially climb out of his crib with ease. At nap time on Monday I heard him yelling (I thought he was fighting sleep), and then I heard knocking. Gracie and I ran upstairs, opened the door, and found a mad Camden knocking on his bedroom door. I thought it might be a one time deal, so I put him back in his crib again. He climbed right back out using his size 7 feet to pull himself over. I gave up on naptime for the time being and began scouring the internet and calling other mamas for help.

For safety reasons, keeping the Little Man in his crib was not an option. I had planned to keep him in his crib for another six months and then convert the crib to a toddler bed. Plans changed. Aaron came home that evening and converted my sweet baby boy's crib into a toddler bed, and we both waited anxiously until bedtime because we had no idea how this was going to go over. I had already planned out how I was going to tackle the toddler bed, but I had NOT planned for Camden to be younger than 2 years old. I decided against locking him in his room and letting him scream his head off. The Little Man thrives on confinement (magic papoose, baby bjorn, swaddler, cribs!), so I knew that letting Camden run around the whole room would not be the best way to teach him to stay in his bed in the beginning. I pulled different ideas from various methods to not only fit what I was comfortable with but also teach him to stay in his bed.

Here is how Camden's Mommy hopes to tame the Little Man into sleeping in a 'big boy' bed, or what I also like to refer to as "Operation: Domination!"

Rule #1
After night time prayers, I'm playing by Super Nanny's rules by telling him "Camden, it's time to go to sleep. You need to sleep in your bed. Goodnight." Then I put him in his bed. When he gets up the second time I say, "No, Camden, it's time to go to sleep. Goodnight." When he gets up after that, I don't say anything to him. Each time he gets up, I silently pick him up and lay him back down on his bed.

Rule#2
I am not giving him any eye contact after the last "Goodnight." I'm keeping my head lowered no matter how much he yells or throws himself on the bed. I'm not going to get up to move him unless both of his feet are completely on the floor.

Rule#3
Because he's younger and not used to this new crazy freedom, I am deciding to sit near the bed the first day, get up only when he gets of bed, take him back to bed, and then sit back down. On the next day move farther away from the bed. Third day, sit by the door. By the end of the week, be completely out of the room. When I move out of his room, I will not get up to move him until he walks out of his doorway.

It's been two days since I started implementing "Operation: Domination!" Here are the stats so far...

Day 1:
Did not get up once during the night. Yay! Woke up at 5:54. Ugh!
Amount of times he crawled out of bed per nap time: 20-30 times
Average Time to fall asleep: 40 minutes and naps lasted only an hour rather than two hours
Angry fits: Too many to count

Day 2:
Did not get up once during the night. Woke up at 6:58. Much better!
Amount of times he crawled out of bed: 10-12 times
Time to fall asleep: 20 minutes and nap lasted 2 hours. (We cut down to one nap because "Operation: Domination!" was too exhausting for mommy to implement more than two times a day.)
Angry Fits: A few big ones, but today was more of a test of boundaries. Little Man would hang his legs over the bed to see what I would do. In my mind I'm thinking, swing your legs all you want buddy, but when those feet hit the ground, you're mine! Sometimes he gave up and laid right back down, angry that I wasn't playing back.

Little Stinker

Tomorrow I'm going to sit outside of his room because he obviously knows where his boundaries are now. *sigh* I'm hoping (praying!) that in two weeks Little Man will be a wiz at toddler bed sleeping... I could possibly be fooling myself too. Someone asked how I can go back and forth, back and forth for an hour with an angry exhausted toddler without saying a word or showing any emotions? Holding a colicky crying, non-sleeping newborn for hours at a time without breaking down instilled more patience than I had ever learned my whole life. The Lord has his ways of teaching patience, and a colicky Camden was His way to teach me. Calmly guiding an angry Little Man back to his bed 40 times in a row is nothing compared to caring for a colicky baby with no sleep. Of course, ask me in a week when he is getting out of bed in the middle of the night, and I might sing a different tune... lack of sleep will do that to me.

Little Man wouldn't even touch the watermelon, much less take a bite out of it...