{ olympics }

While the real Olympics were taking place in London, our household was hosting our very own Olympics. It didn't require any athletic talent or ability. It simply required being able to function on less than 2 consecutive hours of sleep each night for a few weeks. And then be able to deal with a 2 year old who was sleeping about 8-9 hours total per day.

It was grueling. It was exhausting. It was emotional. It was just plain awful.

Our Olympics started about a week after Oliver & Stella turned two. Previously we had a fairly normal and manageable bedtime routine that could be handled by just one of us if needed. Then one night Stella decided she wanted absolutely nothing to do with her crib. Instead of calmly allowing us to put her in her crib after bedtime routine, she screamed and acted panicked as though she was scared of it. This lead to her climbing out.......and not gracefully or safely.

That same night around 12:30am we heard Oliver fussing. Shortly after looking at the video monitor, we heard a thump. After looking at the monitor again, we didn't see him in the crib. We thought it was a fluke and we went in, rocked him, and placed him back in the crib. By the time we got back to our bedroom, he had climbed out again.

The next day we were faced with trying to figure out what to do with these two year olds to get them to sleep! A product called a crib tent (which is exactly what it sounds like - a canopy/tent you place over the crib to keep them from being able to climb out) is what many parents turn to to buy some more time before moving toddlers into a bed. However, all crib tents were recalled just a few months ago so buying them wasn't an option. So that day when Chop got home from work we converted O & S's cribs into toddler beds.

That night we sat outside their rooms, Nanny 911 style, and every time they opened the door to come out of their room we walked them back to their beds. Oliver took a handful of walks back to bed and some crying/fussing before going to sleep. Stella, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with the bed. We tried for hours. She wouldn't budge and got hysterical every time we tried getting her to just lay in her bed. To make a long story short, we were sometimes able to get her to fall asleep in her room with us in there, but inevitably she would end up waking up numerous times throughout the night. And when I say asleep "in her room", that doesn't mean in her bed. On the floor, in her rocker, anywhere but the bed. For the first few nights we tried for hours to try to get her back to sleep in her room when she would wake in the middle of the night and after no success and exhaustion from us and her, we would decide to just let her sleep in our bed.

It wasn't until Grandma C came a few days later that she actually agreed to lay in the actual bed. I don't know what Grandma did or told her when putting her down that day but it worked and she was at least not hysterical when we tried putting her down. But it was still taking a LONG time for her to fall asleep with us in there and she was still waking in the middle of the night and ending up in our bed every night. We decided to wait until after traveling that weekend to do anything drastic.

Fast forward a week and it was toddler bed boot camp. We decided to put gates up at her doorway so when she tried coming out, she would be faced with that. It had turned into too much of a game for her to have us sitting outside of the room and putting her back in bed every time she got out. Saying she was not happy when she opened the door the first night to be faced with floor to ceiling gates is an understatement. She was MAD. But, she ended up falling asleep......on the wood floor. Another favorite location is the rocking chair.

After two nights she was actually agreeable to laying down in her bed for nighttime and naps and the night wakings are limited. Knock on wood, it seems as though we have made some serious progress. Unfortunately when you have early risers to begin with, it is even tougher to keep that time from creeping really, really early since they can just hop out of bed at 5:00am. Always something, right?!

Beginning to think that bribery to stay in bed until 6:00am is in our near future. Until then, we either need to learn to go to bed by 9:00pm or continue to function on less than the ideal number of hours of sleep each night!