Bedtime Blues

I've been very lucky with my little bear.

He never had any issues sleeping, didn't have a hard time getting rid of his pacifier, didn't have a hard time getting rid of the bottle or transferring from crib to 'big boy bed'.

I was very proud that he had always slept in his own bed, waking only one or two times in the night.

Then, I hurt my knee.

This past April I fell and dislocated my kneecap. very very painful. right up there with giving birth or various other horrible high pain situations.

I had to stay off of it and use a crutch up until about June.

During this time dealing with the middle of the night wakings fell to Mr.Darcy.

Now I really can't blame him for what happened as when I hurt myself, he went to work as usual but then also took over all of my normal responsibilities, cleaning, cooking, laundry and taking care of little bear. He was amazing. He's my hero. (and he's handsome too!)

But he was rightfully tired. So when little bear woke in the middle of the night, he got into bed with us.

And he's been sleeping there ever since. 

Now, this wouldn't be so bad if we had a king or even a queen sized bed BUT financial situations being what they are, we have a full size bed. It's barely big enough for Mr.Darcy and I.

This past week or so I've had some kind of cold from hell so I really needed sleep more than I usually do. Between my body waging war within itself and the 6 inches of space I had to sleep in, I wasn't sleeping at all.

Last night I gave up and let the boys have the 'big' bed and I took my sleep deprived self to little bears bed and finally got some sleep.

It was wonderful.

So I've decided to tackle the inevitably difficult task of transitioning little bear back to his bed.

I've read several articles on the subject and decided to try a few of the tips to see where they get me.

I'll try to post a little on my experience with each tip.

The two I'll be trying this evening is implementing the use of a homemade 'sleepytime book' as suggested here and putting him on the old crib mattress on our floor as suggested here. 

*EDIT* He liked the little book and it seemed to help him a little and the mattress on our floor was a major life saver, I actually slept wonderfully!

If you have any experience with this and have any tips or stories, please share!

DISCLAIMER:

Kids do not come with a manual. Everyone has different parenting styles,methods and opinions. Don't bash mine, I won't bash yours. Please keep any negative, condescending, pessimistic, sarcastic, rude or otherwise unnecessary comments to yourself. Thanks!