Rowan’s Big Boy Bed

Okay, that’s it.. confession time. Rowan is only now, at 27 months moving into his own room. I used to be embarrassed about it, but parenthood has taught me a lot, and one big thing has been not to judge!

(.. if you only want to see cute pics of Rowan in his new bed, scroll down, the rest of it is just me chronicling my sleep experiences with him.. maybe for my own self).

I realize more and more now that I have Isla how challenging Rowan was as a tiny guy. It didn’t make me love him one tiny bit less, but I could NOT get that baby boy to sleep!! I read all the books, online forums, etc..  that I could and none of it helped. Cry-it-out just isn’t for us (not judging… it’s just not for us!) and Rowan was the type of baby that went from zero to sixty in under a minute. He would stop breathing every time he cried and wanted to be held constantly. I had friends that said, just lay him down and let him fuss. Fuss? He never fussed.. he SCREAMED bloody murder.  Rowan actually slept pretty good his first 4 months but I can specifically remember a friend from birth class asking me if I considered co-sleeping. I said “ No way!” and held to my idea that I thought that was weird and not good for a relationship. 

That was until things changed, and he stopped sleeping at 4 months.

I’m not kidding when I say that I held him for EVERY.SINGLE.NAP for 8 straight months. I always wondered what I was doing wrong, and spent a lot of time, praying, crying, and talking about it with friends, and Russ. We decided at 4 months, to give co-sleeping a try. It helped, but even when he slept with us he would wake every 30 minutes to an hour all night wanting to nurse. He would then cry and I would have to get up, walk around the house, and/or rock him back to sleep. It was hard and I began to wonder if it would ever really end.It seemed like everyone around me had a kid who slept. I did find some people who could relate when I read some things online, and it helped just to know I wasn’t alone.

Russ and I did the best we could, and made decisions together. I nursed on demand, wore him in the ergo, held and rocked him, and laid down with him to sleep.

Looking back? It was totally, and completely worth it. I feel like I see the benefits now that he is becoming so independent and is sleeping so much better. He only now, at 2 is sleeping through the night (well, most nights) :) .

Sometime after he turned one.. (my memory is a bit hazy), we bought a twin bed and put it on the floor in our room. Russ or I would lay with him until he fell asleep, and then  would climb back into our own bed. Some nights he stayed in his own bed all night, and some nights he would climb in with us at some point. He never spent one single night in the crib. I honestly cherish a lot of that time (and a lot of it was very, very, hard!!! Especially while pregnant!) but I kept reminding myself that he would only be little for so long, and that I would miss this time.

I know a lot of people think that’s crazy, and you might be one of them. :) I really just think as parents we do what’s best for our own family. I also don’t think a lot of “attachment” style parenting works for every parent, or every child. Russ was 100% on board and that was a huge part of what made/makes it successful for us. He told me that he loved knowing Rowan was safe and sound near us at night; especially when he was gone a lot working and didn’t see him much.

Now that we have Isla, and they are starting to wake each other up at night, we knew we needed to make a change. It’s great that Rowan understands so much now because we talked to him about it quite a bit and he was super excited. We went to Ikea and made a big deal about his new bed. He also “helped'” Russ build it. He’s super proud of it and wants to show everyone who comes over. We’re on night 3 and it’s going great.

I guess I didn’t know what to expect with Isla. I was pretty scared to go through it all again but she is such a different little baby. She doesn’t want to be nursed, or rocked to sleep. She will actually push against me if I try. She wants to sleep in the crib, by herself. It almost makes me sad, haha! She actually fusses, not screams!!! So.. we let her do quite a bit of fussing and some crying, and she figured it out on her own. She goes down for every nap and night time without a fight. She finds her two little fingers, sucks on them, and sometimes rolls onto her belly. She is 5 months old and I still can’t believe how great of a sleeper she is, every single time I put her down!!! It’s amazing! I know every baby is different, and I am sure we will face other challenges with her, but so far? She sleeps!!!

This was way longer than I expected, and most of you probably didn’t read all of this, and that’s okay! I just wanted to get it all out, and be able to look back and read it. Here’s the fun part.. pictures!

So serious about constructing the bed. He gets this hat everytime it’s time to build something.. no prompting, lol.

  He made it the first night! So proud! :)