Big Boy

This past week has been a crazy one for me. Gabriel lost his last binky on Labor day, and since he will be 2 in a few weeks we decided not to buy anymore and quite cold turkey (we'd always said we would wean him by age 2 and figured might as well do it!). I'm pretty sure that the following 3 days I missed his binky more than he did. Those days were filled with major tantrums (I mean rolling on the floor, banging against walls, screaming tantrums...), unsatisfying and difficult naps, and teething! Not to mention we had 3 huge thunderstorms in a row at night, which woke everyone up, including Gabriel. Then, Wednesday after a mere 40min nap and during a monster tantrum, I put Gabriel in his crib to cry it out because he kept hurting himself in the living room by flinging himself into things. All of a sudden I hear a crash, run into the room, and Gabriel had finally figured out how to propel himself out of his crib. As you can imagined I was freaked out and then I was frustrated...what was I supposed to do during tantrums now if he could escape his crib/safe place?

And then things started to click. For a little over a week Gabriel had not been wanting to go into his crib during nap and bedtime. He would fall asleep on the chaise/reading couch in his room while we sang to him, but when we went to put him in the crib he would cry and point at the chaise. Taa-daa!!! By Thursday the lightbulb went on that he was ready for a toddler bed! So our plan was to transition him Friday, until we discovered that the toddler railing piece that converts the crib was in my parents attic in Des Moines. Luckily, my mom loves me and brought it up Saturday!

So after dinner Saturday, Daddy went to work turing Gabriel's crib into a big boy bed.

 Gabriel helping Daddy.

 He was very excited about his first ever pillow!

And of course, Lavender had to help as well. 

But then we ran into a problem. Turns out, a piece was still missing :( By this time it was about a quarter to 7p.m. and we called up my parents who double checked their attic. Sure enough, a piece had been left behind! Because my parents are awesome (and we may have bribed them with cookies...) they drove up to Ames to give us the extra piece. The difficult part was keeping Gabriel happy while he waited for his bed to be put together. Every night between 6:30 and 7p.m. we settle down for the night by dimming the lights and reading together on the couch, so by 7 o'clock Gabriel was getting cranky! We went for a walk to waste some time and when we got back I even let Gabriel watch a little TV to keep distracted until Grandma got here with the missing part. 

 Watching Baby Einstein & wearing the pocket diaper I made him.

 Waiting for Grandma...much past his bedtime. 

Shortly before 9p.m. the new big boy bed was put together and Gabriel was able to go to sleep soon after! I was prepared for crying, multiple trips to put him back in the bed, and a night of sheer exhaustion. But none of that happened! He woke ONCE during the night around 4a.m. and went right back to sleep once mommy tucked him back in and sang to him for a few moments. I thought surely it's because he was so exhausted from the long day...tomorrow the chaos will come. However, I am happy to announce that it is now his 4th night in the big boy bed and every night has gone amazing!!! The most he wakes up is once, and a few times I think he has woken up around 1a.m. because I hear his music box going off but not a peep from him. I'm pretty sure that he either bumped into and turned it on or woke up, pushed the music button, and lulled himself back to sleep. Either way I am so proud of him!!! 

Checking out his big boy bed the next morning (he already carried his pillow and blankie to the living room :)

Yesterday's nap time was an absolute disaster. Two hours of pure fruitless struggle, but today went much better. I learned a few things from yesterday. Like he appears to be freaked out about being in the big boy bed by himself during the day, whereas night time he loves it. So today I sat on the edge of the bed until he dosed off and then tip-toed out. I thought he would wake up but it worked, he slept a whole hour!! 

So, my little man is now binky-free, sleeping in a big boy bed, and using a booster seat.