This too Shall Pass

I have never been more happy to see a Monday come around. Last week was the hardest week I have experienced thus far in parenting! This blog is mostly for me to look back on one day and realize that it all worked out...

It all started with the ice storm. While at my parents Zoey figured out how to climb out of the pack n play. We ended up sleeping in the same bed which goes against every fiber of my being! But, I didn't have a choice...she wasn't going to stay in her bed.

Saturday, she was beyond exhaustion and was asleep in her crib within two seconds. Then Sunday afternoon nap came...she screamed for two hours! Since I am a "cry it out" mom, I left her to cry. Don't judge me, Baby Wise made infancy a breeze! Anyway, fast forward to bed time on Sunday...I laid her down like every other night of her past 20months...but she cried, screamed, and cried for hours! Around 11:15, we got her to sleep. Same thing Monday at nap time and Monday and bed time. Tuesday at bedtime we decided we would just let her cry because we didn't want any bedtime routines to start...like standing in her room until she fell asleep! At midnight Brad said we would just go to bed and set our alarm for every hour and a half to see if she had cried herself to sleep yet. It was awful! Even with her door mostly closed, our door all the way closed and our box fan on, I could hear her crying/screaming. Finally an hour and a half passed, it was now 1:30am...she was mostly quiet but still cried out some. I thought maybe a clean diaper would do the trick and she would finally sleep. Well, I thought wrong. That made her even more mad. So I put her in her bed and back to my bed I went. About 5min later we heard (through closed door and loud box fan) a very loud THUD! We immediately knew that she had jumped out of bed! We met her in the hall, she was crying, I was crying, mostly from pure exhaustion (we had very little sleep from the past few days at this point). Somehow though, she had figured out how to get out of bed without even a scrape! She hit the ground so hard that we didn't even think about putting her back in bed in fear that if she got out again, she would get hurt. Once again, we put her in bed with us!

The next morning we took her to the doctor just to bed checked for ear infection or anything that could possibly be causing the screaming for hours at nap time/bed time. She checked out fine. We also went to walmart to buy this railing and turned her crib into a "toddler bed". The doctor told us to give her Benadryl at bed time to help her go to sleep.

 The first night in her toddler bed was a doozy! She was throwing destructive fits (i.e. unplugging her radio and throwing it at the door...no, I am not exaggerating! She got her mommy's temper!)! Finally, we realized we were fighting a battle we weren't going to win in one night, so we took everything out of her room that she could possibly hurt herself with, and shut the door. She cried for maybe another 30min and then all was quiet. For the first time in 4 days, she fell asleep on her own.

We didn't have a video monitor at that point, but we were pretty sure she had fallen asleep by the door...but it was silent...sweet silence!! 

The next day at nap time, she found stuff we hadn't taken out and made a mess, while crying for the hour she was in her room! This picture doesn't do justice to the mess she made!

 After the night before, not knowing where she fell asleep and worrying about her, we bought a video monitor....toddler spy cam! Hahaha!

 Thursday night we had our Sunday Schools Christmas party. I reluctantly left her in my moms care. Reluctantly because I didn't want mom to experienced what we had gone through every night for the past week. At 7:15 I texted mom to see how she was doing since that was her bed time. She said she was crying, but not much at all. When I texted again only 15min later...all was quiet! She was asleep by her bedroom door. She slept by her door until 8:30 Friday morning when I woke her up!

Since then, she whimpers when we leave her room...She quickly climbs out of her bed, lays down at door, and sleeps there the rest of the night.

Tonight is the first night with her new twin bed in her room (pics of her big girl room transformation to come), but yet she is sound asleep at her door. We put her back in her bed two or three times each night, then let her fall asleep at her door. I know one day, hopefully soon, it will click in her head that she needs to stay in bed, but for now, we are all getting sleep at night which we all desperately need. 

This past week has been a hard one for me as a mom. I have HATED hearing my baby scream at the top of her lungs and knowing there wasn't a thing I could do to soothe her. I have cried many a nights from pure exhaustion and seeing my baby's room turn into a little girls room. It's been a hard and tiring week, but I know in the end, this too shall pass....