Sweet Dreams?

We have had a bit of a challenging time getting Ivan to sleep in his big boy room. At first he would tell us that he was a baby and needed to sleep in the baby bed. Apparently, the crib was very comforting to him. We would have loved to keep him in there, but knew it was not the right thing to do. So, we decided we had to deal with what was to come. At first he would just cry and beg us to let him out of his room. Then he started standing at the gate to his room and yelling down to us "guys, I am up here. Come get me out" Then the real fun began. He started turning into a completely different child at bed time. He would run around the room, climb on the furniture and jump off, pull all of the clothes out of his closet, etc..... When we would try to calm him down, he would then turn on us and become a child we were not used to-a mean child. We started to hate bed time and would devote hours of taking turns dealing with the situation. We have removed all furniture other than his bed from his room, so that we do not have to worry about his safety. One nasty bruise on his leg that apparently came from him climbing on his shelves so that he could kick the planes hanging from his ceiling, convinced us to remove the furniture.

I think we are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but we are not quite there yet. When we head up to bed, we are never quite sure what we will find in Ivan's room. Lately, we tend to find him passed out on the floor next to his gate. We have learned that we have to carry him to his bed or he will kick his door in the middle of the night and will wake up requesting that we come lay with him. If he does actually fall asleep in his bed, he usually has numerous items surrounding him. This usually consists of any items that we have let him take to bed with him over the last several nights, such as cups of water, blankies, stuffed animals and books.

This has been the most challenging part of parenthood so far. So, if we can get through this-I think we can conquer anything!!!!