Fail

As I mentioned in the vacation recaps, Ryan wasn't sleeping so well down in Disney.  He wasn't able to move around the pack n' play like he can his crib, and he didn't like that.  He was waking up so often, that I finally decided to try to let him sleep in our bed.  Some of you may think that's a bad idea and bad habit, but during his 17+ months of life, Ryan NEVER once slept in our bed before this vacation.  I'd even tried to allow him in our bed before when he'd been sick, and he had absolutely no interest in sleeping with us.  As it turned out, most nights I took Ryan into bed with us.  He wasn't completely happy in the bed, but it was the best of the two options. While neither he nor I slept very well during our week, there are some moments I'll never forget.  In our bed, most nights he insisted on having his head touching me.  He had to place his head on my neck, on my belly, or on my leg.  None of these positions looked very comfortable, but that's how he wanted it.  Unfortunately he would still wake up in the middle of the night in our bed, let out a cry from discomfort and then move around to another position that would work for the next few hours.  He'd often wake up face down on the bed with his head in the completely wrong direction from the pillows.  My mornings usually started earlier than they do at home, but at least I was awakened to my little boy kissing me.  I'll always cherish the memory of the time he woke up, took my face between both his little hands and pulled me in for a kiss.  While it was not the ideal sleeping plan for either of us, I'm happy I got a little bit of cuddle time with him in a way that we've never had before.  

The big "fail" came in when we returned from vacation.  Pat and I thought that since he'd been away from his crib for a week and had slept in a bed (albeit our bed), maybe he'd adjust to a toddler bed easily.  Boy, were we wrong!  We got the little toddler bed all set up with his mattress and everything.  He enjoyed climbing on as you can see in the pictures, but when it came time to sleep there, he was not having it.  After such a long week with little sleep, we were not going to push it.  I put him back into his crib, and he has returned to sleeping his 11 hours a night without a peep.  The first night he was back in his crib, Pat and I saw on the video monitor that he rolled around enjoying all the space of his crib for a good 20 minutes before knocking out for his much needed rest.     

We still have the toddler bed in his room along with his crib right now.  We're going to let him get used to the bed.  We're in no rush to move him over, so maybe we'll try again at the end of the summer.  For right now, I'm just happy he's happy.