Adventures In (Not) Sleeping

I haven't been able to post much since Alex decided last weekend that he'd had enough of his crib and learned to climb out. It came as a shock since he's just 18 months old and didn't seem like he could get his leg over the side - but he definitely can! Based on books I had read, particularly The Baby Whisperer, we had intended to wait until Alex was at least two years old to make the transition to a bed, but the fear of him hurting himself as he climbed out of his crib compelled us to convert his crib to a daybed (or youth bed, as the manufacturer calls it). I even posted in the past about using a "Big Kid Diploma" to ease the transition to a bed, but alas, Alex is too young to understand the concept.

Alex's age has made the transition a tough one. He has been getting up in the middle of the night and staying awake for one to two hours, during which either Marc or I have also been up to keep him in his bed and encourage him to go back to sleep. Most of the articles I've found seem geared toward children older than Alex with better comprehension skills. We definitely considered the idea of putting up a gate at the door to his room but finally decided against the inevitability of him standing there, crying at the top of his lungs until he throws up - or quite possibly simply climbing over the gate.

I can only hope that by the time our second baby is born, Alex will be sleeping through the night again. And count my blessings that at least this happened while we still have some time to make the adjustment, rather than right before the baby was born.