Abandon Ship!

Today was interesting. After 4 weeks of progressively disruptive sleep, John jumped the crib. Seriously, he found a way to get out of his crib.

Yesterday, after only 30 minutes total napping (that is ALL DAY, but I am must state that the day before the grand total was 10 minutes), I went to the library to check out Sleepeasy. It has a section on disrupted sleep (nighttime and naps) when toddlers are dealing with separation anxiety. So last night was the start of boot camp. Strangely, going to bed is still going great...but once he gets a good stretch of sleep he has started waking up between once or twice a night, to every hour...and if it starts anywhere after 4:30 am, it is likely to be every 15 minutes...and when he wakes, he freaks out.

So last night at 12:30, it was rough. Dr. D had suggested that one of us go to him when he freaks out in the night, just so he knows we are there and then progressively give him less as the nights wear on. The approach laid out in the book isn't much different, but it is a little more rigid. So it took about 1.5 hours to get John to go back to sleep, but then he didn't wake up again until 6:30. That's progress.

Well, the book warned...naps are tough. Tough doesn't even begin to adequately describe today. John took a 40 minute morning nap...not great, but not too shabby either and no fussing. So we got out of the house, but the weather was nasty so we went to NorthPark and played and ate some lunch before heading home for afternoon nap. This one wasn't near as pretty as the morning nap. With my 5, 10, and 15 minute increments we started the process. After 5 minutes, John was raging...after the next 10 he had lowered the decibals a bit, and then after the 15 he had had a quiet spell but revved back up. So I went in to talk to him in a calm voice and reassure him that Mommy had not left the house and that I was indeed there should he really need me, but as I opened the door, I am greeted by my crazy kid right at the door!!! I freaked out (it is horrible to think how it happened...did he land on his head!?!), which in turn, freaked him out, but after my hasty inspection, he was ok. And he melted into my arms and fell asleep...exhausted. So I laid him in his crib for his last hoorah and he slept for 30 minutes before waking and me rushing in to make sure he didn't crack his head open the next time.

We proceeded to spend the afternoon taking the crib apart to make sure it was set at the lowest setting, yep. And set up the packnplay to use as his temporary bed. I also felt pretty much like a crappy mom, but stuck to my guns on the sleep training. This little man is so exhausted, which in turn means that I am exhausted. It does seem to be separation anxiety, which I understand is pretty common at this age, and with all that has been going on in this house it really makes sense. He has had at least 8000 doctors appointments, his dad and I have lots of anxiety waiting on a diagnosis, the most stubborn top left molar in the history of teething, his mom is pregnant, not to mention, we are all ready for spring to get here and stay!

Oh well, guess this solves our problem of deciding whether or not to get the New Potato a new crib or kick John out of his. He doesn't have long before he will be able to get out of the packnplay too, so we are putting our thinking caps on to figure out the next step. There is no way he is ready for a toddler or twin bed at this point.