"Pilot"

This is my first post, so be nice. Okay, so I'd like to start off with my background.  Currently, I am juggling an almost-two-year-old with pending molars, being a military wife (while being in the military myself), bettering myself by taking online courses to eventually get my Bachelor's in Psychology, cleaning and maintaining a beautiful, newly purchased home ... and my sanity.

My husband and I recently converted our son's crib to a toddler bed.  We felt like it was time for him to transition to a big-boy bed.  First two nights went great.  He slept all night minus maybe an hour, resulting in an earlier wake-up time, but that's okay.  I'll forgive him for that.  The next couple of nights...torture.  My son woke up at approximately 11:30, 12 each night for a few nights in a row.  We attempted to rock him in the rocking chair in his room, and as soon as he'd doze off, we'd (try) to move him back to his own bed.  No such luck.

After failed attempt after failed attempt, we'd cave and bring him into our bed.  Now, I am not an advocate for sleeping in the bed with your child, solely because I like my sleep, and if your kid is anything like mine, he does not sleep when he's in the bed with us, but you do what you have to do to get a little bit of sleep.  From day one he has slept solo and from 3 months on, he's slept in his very own room.  So after a few night's of an hour or two of sleep in a row while trying to recover from my second bout of oral surgery in two weeks, I'm at a loss.  This happened again last night.  He woke up around 11:30pm, and I took the first shift.  I went in there, picked him up, rocked him and tried to move him into his own bed.  As usual, he awoke as soon as his head hit head hit the sheets.  I tried again and failed.  I finally got him down and made my way back into our bedroom.  It was 12:40am by then.  He woke up as soon as my hand reached for the covers.  I went back into his room and tried again.  Eventually he climbed out of bed and made his way into our room where he obviously got to join us in bed.  After tossing and turning and moving and kicking, he fell asleep and so did we.  Almost every hour, on the hour, he woke up.  I don't get it.  Did I assume he could handle such a thing too quickly?

I had heard other people in my life with young children who converted their child's bed into a toddler bed, and I couldn't help but wonder if I was behind.  I have debated all week long about converting his bed back to a crib, but I kind of feel like I could be robbing him of some serious growing up if I were to do so.  Maybe I just have to endure it for a little while longer until he gets the picture.  He's napping now (in his bed), and I wonder how long it will take for all of us to make it through a whole night without being woken up.  This past week, it's almost been like having a newborn again.  Which by the way, my husband and I are trying again, and the lack of sleep and constant crying has me remembering the early days of my son's life where all I wanted was some quality sleep.

Can I handle it again?  I think so.  I certainly am not the same woman I was a year and a half ago.  My son has made me grow up quite a bit, and I should have more faith in him that this transition from crib to toddler bed will be a good thing for him and thus will result in a happier, more alert family in the days to come.