1 hour and 14 min

Tonight is night eight for Lawson in his big boy bed.

Tonight is the night that we officially became the "Big Boy Bed Cops"... it took him 1 hour and 14 minutes to surrender.

We feel as though we have a newborn with no directions or instructions for this milestone in life.

The first four nights were beautiful, thanks to Russ. From the get go, this new step has caused me great anxiety... simply because he has been such an awesome sleeper since he was about six weeks old. He was "ferberized" and our anal consistency paid off with a little boy who put himself to sleep by 8:00 each night and slept all night. I was so afraid to shake up the sleeping schedule for him, but selfishly for us... sleep is more important now as parents than it has ever been.

We took his baby bed down almost immediately as we needed a new one due to a recall. This seemed to cause no problems due to the excitement of his new bed. On Tuesday night, Russ put the new bed together and it wasn't finished and bedded until after he so peacefully went to bed. However, on Wednesday night he saw the new bed which so nicely looks as though it is ready to be slept in and pitched a fit to get in, so not thinking, I let him jump in. He wasn't in there three minutes and we went on about the night.

Hindsight is 20/20.

Around 7:30 he had had his milk and was ready for bed. As we were walking towards his bedroom, he immediately took a left rather than a right and cried to get in the baby bed. And I forgot to mention, Russ was out of town. I was already stressed about the night as I had had no part of the bedtime routine due to my level of "big boy bed - no sleep" anxiety and Russ was doing such a great job that there was no need to become involved. I immediately became a little panicked. Russ was out to dinner on his business trip and could not be called as this was not a "true emergency" so I debated on calling my best friend, Jennifer, but knew she had no successful experience with this so I called my mom. She thought it was quite humorous as she is Nana and all he does is cute, so I knew I had to suck it up and figure it out. And I did... about 30 minutes later he was asleep. I said a little prayer of thanksgiving. : ) (Jennifer - maybe you should try this! and if not, that's ok... this Harvard lady's last line stated that you shouldn't stress about poor sleeping children as she had never found a college student who required his/her parents to help him/her go to sleep and like all struggles in childhood, it would eventually pass... that should give you hope! Thanks for all of the other life/parental problems you help me solve!) :)

Since that night, it has gone down hill. If only I hadn't let him get in the baby bed.

He quickly discovered that he could get OUT of his bed. This became a game and was very funny to all three players involved. Russ and I could not compose ourselves to the consistency of the game which went something like this, "mom and dad walk out, I jump out of my bed, run to the living room, shout "hey!!!", run back to my bed hysterically laughing, and wait for them to scoop me up and put me back in my bed"! Repeat. Repeat. It truly was funny and for three nights running, ended with Russ rocking him to sleep which had NEVER occurred under this roof. What were we going to do? He was in control and we felt helpless and hopeless.

Tonight, however, after about 15 minutes into the "game", I jumped on google. A "reality check" document through the Parents.com website popped up. Clicked on it and there was an article by a female Doctor from Harvard. Read her plan and it sound as though it was worth a try. Russ was reluctant, but I insisted. I wasn't sure it was going to work, but her description of the type of child in which it would be successful for mirrored Lawson perfectly. I knew we had to try it, and although this is night number one, I believe it might work.

We simply stood AT THE DOOR for about fifty minutes and said the same thing about fifty times as we returned him to his bed... "you must stay in your bed", "you must stay in your bed". Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. He finally stayed. And he finally went to sleep. It was quite pittiful to sit at the door and watch him roll all over the bed as he fought going to sleep. BUT he went. He gave in and finally went to sleep, no tears involved. We can only HOPE that the falling asleep time will become less and less and that as he HAS done the past eight nights, he will continue to sleep all night.

The running pitter-patter of his feet on the wood floor as he comes to our room in the mornings is sweet, I must admit. It has taken the place of the "mommy! daddy!" cries from the bed. He looks so big as the running comes to a hault and he quietly enters our room as if to check to see if we are awake before he comes in.

He has grown up so quickly, esp over the past couple of months, and this feels like the icing on the cake. I suppose we will continue to trudge ahead playing the "trial and error/guess and check" method of being parents, and pray that we will eventually figure each step out as we go... even if we have to be the "cops" as tough-love so commonly presents itself.

Such a sweet boy and even sweeter when he is sleeping.

Sweet dreams, Lawson. We love you.