My Big Little Boy

As some of you may know, Ryan has decided to crank up his charm lately and not sleep through the night. About 2 months ago he realized he could climb out of his crib and refused to stay in it. We first realized this when I woke up one morning and the fridge door was open, the ketchup, soy sauce and an open Yoplait were sitting in the middle of the floor. He started waking up around 4am and just didn't want to sleep anymore. He would come in my room, I would take him back. He would come in again, I would change his diaper and take him back. He would come in AGAIN, I would get him a drink or food, some Benedryl and take him back. By the time this process was done it was 5:30 and he wasn't going to go back to sleep. We would both end up falling asleep to Baby Einstein around 6:45am. MISERABLE! I was trouble shooting everything from teething to hunger trying to figure out why he wouldn't sleep through the night. I tried being nice and rocking him to sleep, reading him a story, singing songs. When that didn't work, I was a little mean and "painted his back porch red" a few times. Nothing worked. The kid is as stubborn as can be--seriously--Scott and I have never seen anything like him before. Right as I was about ready to throw in the towel, declare I was never having anymore children, and was going to camp out on his floor just to keep him in line, we had a break through. Actually Grandma Judy came to our rescue. She told us how my little brother David used to constantly climb out of bed and they could never keep him in his room. Finally they tied his door closed (there wasn't a lock on it so they just tied it from the outside to the bathroom door across the hall.) She said it was rough for the first little while--they would find him asleep on the floor by the bottom of his door--having cried himself to sleep. Sooo, we started locking Ryan in his room. I put the monitor in there, locked the door after he fell asleep and let fate happen. We would find him playing with his toys at 6 am (probably had been awake for hours but at least he wasn't wandering the house by himself in the middle of the night). Then 3 nights ago I go to check on him before we went to bed and he was nowhere to be found. Not in his crib, not playing with his toys--NOWHERE! I FREAKED out for about 5 seconds, ready to check the window to see if someone had broke in and then Scott starts laughing. He had opened the sliding closet doors and there was Ryan, fast asleep on the floor INSIDE HIS CLOSET. The next day I took his crib apart and turned it into a toddler bed. What was the point of a crib when he wouldn't use it. "Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles" he sleeps through the night now. Apparently he just couldn't get back in after climbing out and that's why he would stay awake. Now he hops right in bed, goes to sleep and I don't hear a peep until 6:45am--even then he is totally content playing with his toys until Scott checks on him before heading to work. (we keep the door locked still just in case).

Moral of the story, when dealing with a STUBBORN boy who won't stay in his crib, do the exact opposite of what logically should work. Take away the crib and suddenly he wants to sleep. AHHHH!