Growing Pains

We are constantly "suffering" from growing pains here. Before now we "suffered" through potty training, beginning preschool, and accidents of the peeing kind. The newest pain we are dealing with now is the toddler bed. That's right, the toddler bed. Over the weekend Cole decided to climb out of his crib. He did a wonderful job at carefully placing his feet between the railings and stretching his toes until they touched the mattress. I know this because we put him into the crib and watched him perform his new found trick.

Jason, with the help of Jase, took the front off the crib. I sat and watched and of course took pictures. This was a little hard for me to watch. My baby is growing up. The last time we did this it was exciting because there was going to be a replacement going into the crib. Not this time. Once Cole is done with this crib/bed...there will be no need for a crib any longer. No need.

Once the front came off the crib Cole did some inspecting of his new bed.

He finally was brave enough to climb into bed. Jase joined Cole and shared some words advice..."Coley now you can jump off your bed!"

Instead of jumping off the bed, Cole ran back and forth and did a little jumping in place. This is better than jumping off the bed, right?

Cole lead us to believe that all would be okay with the new bed. He laid in the bed and seemed comfortable.

Boy, is that last picture deceiving. This kid wants nothing to do with the new sleeping arrangement. There are many, many tears shed every night and a million trips putting Cole back into bed. We are searching for ways to get Cole to stay in his bed. We've tried sitting/laying right beside his bed. But that only works if he's really tired otherwise he'll leave the room with one of us in it.

For the first six months of his life, Cole was not a good sleeper. He had to be held and rocked to sleep. But eventually he learned to fall asleep in his crib and stay asleep throughout the night. Now I feel as if we are starting over from scratch. The kid will not fall asleep in his bed and he his waking up throughout the night. Except for not preparing a bottle at midnight, it's almost like we've got an infant around here.

I was prepared for this change to not be easy, however I was not ready for the change to happen this soon. Jase was easy. Not a whole lot of tears and slept throughout the night in his new bed from almost the very beginning. But like I said his transition into a big boy bed was exciting because of the new baby brother coming and I had to be ready for that change. There was no excitement about Cole switching beds because I wasn't ready for him to come out of the crib. I had plans on him actually staying a baby just a little longer. So much for that.

Anyway, growing pains and changes are going on around us at all times. All I can do is pray. Pray and ask God to give me and Jason the strength to be the best parents we can be. Pray and ask God to be with both our boys and help them through the stages of their lives.