Beds are overrated

When Ethan was in his crib as a baby and toddler, he was the easiest kid to put to bed EVER. We changed his clothes, loved on him, plopped him in his bed and walked out the door. He didn't fuss, didn't play--just went right to sleep. We had had a rather difficult transition to a big bed with Abby, so I was a little apprehensive about moving him. Turns out there was no need for apprehension. Dread would have been more appropriate.

My longtime readers will recall our struggles with getting E to stay in bed. I posted about it frequently, including here, Two years later, and we're still going strong with the struggle. We've settled into an impasse of sorts, in which we leave his door open but put a baby gate up so that all he can do is stand at it and whine. We go on about our evening--works for us.

Anyway, even though he's contained Ethan is determined to prove his independence in some way. He's chosen to refuse to use his bed. Every night we tuck him in to his comfortable bed. We cover him with blankets. Every night before we go to bed, we check on him, and he has pulled all his blankets off the bed, dragged out any number of toys, and finally fallen asleep somewhere in his floor. He's not particular on this point--any old piece of floor will do. A couple of weeks ago I started taking a picture from the doorway after he settled every night. Below are the results:


He was really active on this night before he finally caved. Note the mess.

He loves to sleep with his ankles crossed like this. Can't be good for circulation.

It's like he was on his way to whine at the gate and just couldn't make it all the way. Note that he's turned his socks backwards.

On this night I looked for him for a good while before I realized that he was, of all places, in his bed! He must have not felt well.


The good news is that once he's asleep, we can pretty much do whatever we want and he won't wake up. So we go in and scoop him up and move him to his bed, where I think he stays the rest of the night. I only hope he grows out of this habit, or someday his poor wife will really get tired of stepping over him to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Bless her heart, though, that will probably be the least of her worries.