Big Boy Bed

For the past week or so we have been working on transitioning Hudson into his big boy bed in his big boy room.  The night before the move, we sang songs in the rocking chair, prayed and tucked him into his crib.   

 Here is a groggy Hudson waking up from one last nap in his crib.  Hudsy is quite particular about how he sleeps, as you can imagine.  He has two blankets - the "old blanket" and the "new blanket."  He likes to lay on one and be covered with the other.  He also likes to have two soo-soos and an assortment of animals. 

 

 We got Hudson excited about his big boy room by having him help us move all of his animals, clothes and other personal belongings out of his old room and into his new big boy room.  He liked carrying everything around.  Then we tucked him into his new bed and gave him a big talk about how big boys stay in their beds all night without getting out and when they wake up they call Mom and Dad to come get them.  This worked marvelously the first night.

 And then not as well.  Below you can see what we found one day after his "nap."  He pulled all of his clothes out of all of his drawers and all of his toys off of all of his shelves.  Not much napping was done it seems. 

 Since then we have embarked on the road to getting Hudson to stay in his bed.  Our techniques so far have included:

- The "Supernanny" technique where you put your kid back in bed, without saying anything, every time they get up until they stay in bed.  Keith did this for four nights, an hour each night.  We would have stuck with this, but with Hudson's love of routine, we thought he liked the new little game he'd created. 

- The "Cribs Suck, Beds Rule" technique.  We talk up the big boy bed, but if he gets out of bed more than three times he has to go into the crib, with only one soo-soo, no animals and only one blanket.

- The "Clap" technique.  If he stays in his bed all night or for a whole nap, we call people to tell them and they clap.  G&G Reed, G&G Kroeker and Aunty Sara have been getting a lot of calls lately as this seems to be the most motivating technique.  We're 3 for 4 on the last three naps/nights. 

In other news, Hudson has gotten better at sitting and listening to stories.  Here he is enjoying one of Keith's old "Monkey George" books.