Sleep Struggles

I feel like I am walking around in a daze today. It's been a rough week sleep wise.

Around the time we experimented with switching Peter to a toddler bed he also figured out how to CLIMB out of his crib. He puts his foot up on the ledge of the crib, swings all his body weight over, and drops down on the other side. We've dropped the edge of the crib, lined the floor with blankets and also put a step stool there to make it a little "safer" for him. Somehow throwing his entire body uncontrolled over the edge scares me!

Anyways, nearly every night this week has been a battle. Now that he knows he can get out he doesn't understand why he should ever stay IN his crib. Bedtime consists of a LONG winding down time, then after about 6 books we put him in bed as he starts to get sleepy. This seems to make him perk up! As I'm leaving the room and turning the lights off he is scrambling down the step stool and running after me.

It's become a game. I point back at his crib and he gets back in, but the minute I turn my back he's back out again! If I get out the door, thirty seconds later he'll be opening the door to peek out at me. If our eyes meet he giggles and runs back into his room then slams the door while howling with laughter.

After a while we learned to put the baby gate up at his bedroom door. He was atleast confined to his room and we stayed pretty quiet so he couldn't hear us. This lead to an hour or so of screaming and crying at the gate. That is SO HARD!!! I'd go in every once in a while to get him a drink or to tuck him into bed. A few times he fell asleep at the foot of the gate and I carried him to bed.

Well finally Tuesday night we had a lot of fun playdates and really wore him out. He also didn't get as much of a day time nap as usual. That night after storytime I laid him in bed and he waved and said "Bye!" as I left the room. He was out! I was unbelievably happy! Floating on Cloud 9! We could figure this out! I decided to go to bed early and get some rest!

At 2 am John comes in the room and says "I have to work in a few hours and need to sleep, you need to get up and take care of Peter."

I was like "What the heck is going on?"

Turns out Peter had woken up at 11pm and after he didn't go straight back to bed John decided he just must not be tired so they should play to tire him out. Ai, ai, ai! Bad logic! Three hours later I was dragging myself out of bed wondering why this was happening.

I went out and got Peter. His diaper was soaked! No wonder he couldn't get comfortable in bed! I changed his diaper. I got him some formula. I took him to his room and turned on his bedtime music and I put him in bed. Then I went to bed. I'll never understand why I couldn't have done that three hours earlier and not screwed up his sleeping pattern.

Yesterday, because of the weird sleep Peter was all out of whack. He didn't fall asleep for his nap until 4pm and then slept right through dinner and through the night. Unfortunately he woke up at 3am this morning ready to attack the day! ARGH! And of course since he had just slept for nearly 12 hours nothing I did would make him go back down.

SO FRUSTRATING!!!

Anyways, today I am exhausted because I've been up since 3am. And tomorrow is Peter's birthday! We are having a parkdate in the morning with our mommy friends so I am frantically trying to get things together today in my dazed mood. I have to go to the store for some snacks tonight and I also need to make some kind of cupcake/muffin that Peter can eat. No store bought goodies for him! Pray for me that I can get everything done in the next 24 hours and still have energy to enjoy the celebrations!