The Mom Crowd

Two days before Christmas, a milestone I have been dreading for more than a year was achieved.  My two year old learned that he was more than capable of getting out of his crib without my help.  I unassumingly went to retrieve him from his nap one day and discovered him waiting by the door for me.  He immediately ran to his crib and said “up” and wanted to show me his newfound skill.  I thought for a second about buying a crib tent for him until we were ready to transition him to a big kid bed, but decided I was only delaying the inevitable.  Anyway, we will be needing his crib for Reese when she comes home in a few months.  So, I set up his twin size bed frame and mattress we already had waiting for him.

We transitioned my daughter out of her crib when she was 18 months old.  There are a couple of reasons she made the move early, but the primary reason was I needed the crib for her brother who was incubating in my womb.  I also was a first time parent who didn’t understand the benefits of waiting for some of those great milestone moments! That being said, I have now successfully transitioned two children from their cribs to big kid beds and bedtime is rarely a difficult task in our house.  I will be fair and admit that I have two children who never been especially difficult to coax to bed.  While my children do not typically fight sleep in our home, they will never sleep in the car (yes, 5  hour round trip day visits with my family are always fun!) and getting them to go to sleep in any bed other than their own is a next to impossible task.  So, my anxiety about transitioning my son to a new bed was warranted. Here is my son’s transition story and some tips that helped us in moving our children from their cribs to big kid beds.

Getting Ready for Your Transition:

• Go overboard on baby proofing!  Put a door knob safety cover on the inside of the door or a baby gate at their door, cover outlets, secure ALL furniture to a wall stud, take away any climbing temptation, eliminate any small or sharp objects in their room, check for strings on pull toys and other choking hazards, and make sure your windows are secure and do not pose a choking hazard (blind cords especially!!!)  Babyproofing should go beyond your child’s bedroom.  Make sure there is a gate at the top of your stairs if you have a two-story home. If you have an alarm for your front, back, and garage doors, be sure to set it.  Wandering children in the middle of the night is never a good thing!
• Limit the number of toys in their room.  Toys can be a big distraction from falling asleep.  My daughter had a small basket of books and a small basket of baby dolls in her room. Gradually, we have increased the number of toys in the bedrooms.

Ready or Not!
Whether your transitioning your child to a toddler size bed or a full size bed, make sure they cannot roll out easily.  We took a very “Super Nanny” approach in our transitions.  We went through our normal bed time routine, informed our children that it was time for sleep, and we encouraged them to stay in their bed.  The first night my son slept in his big boy bed was rough.  He went to bed at his normal bedtime, but every time I left the room, he would get up and cry scream bloody murder by the door.  We watched the clock and every 15 minutes, I would go in his room and place him back in his bed.  I reminded him the first time that it was time for sleep.  After that, I didn’t say anything to him.  I did this about four times and he was not letting up.  So, I decided to go in his room and sit in the dark by the door.  I told him to stay in his bed and he did as long as I was in his room and fell asleep after about 10 minutes.  The next night, we started off with the initial routine from the night before, but after hearing him call for us pitifully saying, “No! Mommy!  No! Daddy!” my husband and I decided that one of us should sit in his room with him until he fell asleep.  He was asleep after 5 minutes of me sitting by his door.  On the third night, he didn’t need me in the room and went straight to bed without any reminders to stay in his bed.

Naptime wasn’t much different.  He isn’t napping as long as he normally did before he moved from his crib, but he is still taking decent naps.  After a couple of days of reminding him it was time for nap and not giving in by taking him downstairs to play, he is now a pro at napping in his new bed.

I think the main reason our children transitioned well is because of our consistency.  While we did give in a little by staying in the room with him until he fell asleep, we didn’t give in by taking him out of his room once it we began bedtime.  He takes us seriously now when we say it’s bedtime and doesn’t put up a fight.  That being said, I think if we had other sleep battles from the get-go this transition would have been much harder.

How was your child’s transition from his crib?  What worked for you during their transition?  What didn’t work for you when you transitioned?  Was your child already a good sleeper when it was time for them to switch beds?

This is not in any way an informative post, however I hope it will bring a smile to your face.  This is my son and daughter with Santa.  My son was not so thrilled to be with old St. Nick!  If you have any great Santa pictures, I’d love to see them!!  Merry Christmas to all of our readers!  I am so honored to be a contributor to this great blog! 

Amanda gave some good tips on guarding your joy this season.  My number one joy stealer during the Christmas season is family overload.  Like many people, I have “one of those families.”  If they made a movie about my beloved family, I don’t think it’d do very well because viewers would say it wasn’t believable enough and no one would be able to keep up with who’s who and what’s what!  Oh, the drama!  I love each and every member of my family very much, but I can only handle a few of them in small doses. The irony, though, is that my favorite thing about the holiday season is seeing my family and spending time playing board games and cards and eating some good food!  However, it doesn’t take long before the family drama and the family history makes these gatherings difficult for me.

This year, I am consciously determined to enjoy the time I spend with my family.  I am ashamed that I sometimes don’t look forward to spending time with my extended family and I am going to try very hard to be aware of my bad attitude and be excited to spend time with them.  I think I have longed for “what could be” in my family relationships, instead of making “what is” better and enhanced.  When you are constantly longing for something else in your family it makes their shortcomings obvious and it more difficult to appreciate the wonderful attributes of each of your family members.  I forget that I have a lot of power in how well my relationships are with my family.  Instead of hoping they will change or strengthen their relationship with me,  I am going to take the lead and strengthen the relationships I have with my family members as much as I can.  I challenge you to make the same committment this year!

Do you have a hard time enjoying your family during your visits?  How do you avoid family overload?  How do you deal with the family members that you just do not “click” with?

I read two great articles last week called 10 Things You Should Never Buy New and 10 Things You Should Never Buy Used.  Ironically, I had been thinking that week of all of my favorite hand-me-downs or favorite things that we have bought “new-to-us.”  Some people just are not and will never be hand-me-down lovers.  I am the complete opposite.  I check Craigslist and Ebay very regularly.  There are a lot of items in my house that were either handed down to us or we bought used.  One of my most favorite places to shop is a resale shop called Kid-to-Kid.  While I love hand-me-downs and buying used, there are some things that just are a no-go.  For example, I don’t buy my own clothes used and sometimes, simply for convenience sake, I will spend a little more to buy brand new.  I also ALWAYS buy new when buying gifts for others.

The items that you should never buy new according to MSN include books, DVDs and CDs, children’s toys, jewelry, sporting equipment, timeshares, cars, computer software and video games,  office furniture, and hand tools.  Items you should never buy used according to MSN include laptops, carseats, plasma televisions, DVD players, vacuum cleaners, camcorders, shoes, mattresses, wet suits, and helmets.

I generally agree with these articles.  Carseats, helmets, and other safety gear should always be new! However, electronics are risky when you buy used, but depending on how good of a deal you can find the risk may outweigh the cost.

So, what about you?  Are you a hand-me-down gal or do you prefer to have everything brand new?  What do you think of these lists?  What are your favorite used finds?  What things will you never, under any circumstances, buy used?  

As many of you know, our family is adopting a child through Reece’s Rainbow and a while ago, The Mom Crowd hosted a raffle to help bring another child from Reece’s Rainbow home.  You can catch up with this beautiful family and their new daughter, Addison {AKA: Nika} at their family blog.  Is that enough “hyperlinking” for ya?

I wanted to take a moment to share with you about Reece’s Rainbow and their mission.  Reece’s Rainbow is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to raise awareness regarding the plight of children with Down syndrome in foreign orphanages and their availability to be adopted, to raise adoption grants for waiting children, to seek out adoptive families for these children, to help adopting families during their adoption process with fund raising opportunities and paperwork assistance {and emotional support-I threw that one in!}, to provide humanitarian aid to foreign orphanages, to facilitate support groups for birth parents of children with Down syndrome to help decrease the number of children placed in orphanages, and to enact social change abroad about children with Down syndrome and other special needs through the testimony of adoption.

In 2006, Reece’s Rainbow expanded from an outreach program for families with children with Down syndrome in Atlanta to an organization promoting international adoption of children with Down syndrome.   In the short two years since beginning this new focus, over 120 children with Down syndrome and other special needs have found forever families with the help of Reece’s Rainbow. As of June 2008, they have dispersed over $86,000 to adopting families and have waiting children with substantial grants ready for their prospective parents.  Many orphans around the world are not receiving adequate nutrition and health care.  In Eastern European and other countries, orphans with Down syndrome are commonly transferred to mental institutions if they are not adopted by the age of four. After they are transferred, most die within the first year from lack of basic care.

There is a special way you can help Reece’s Rainbow fulfill their mission.  Every year, Reece’s Rainbow hosts a Christmas Angel Tree Project.  Right now, you can see every child with Down syndrome waiting for a family through Reece’s Rainbow and sponsor one or more of them for Christmas.  With every $35 donation, you will receive a special ornament with a picture of the child you are sponsoring for Christmas.  Will you consider sponsoring an orphan with Down syndrome this Christmas?  In order to receive an ornament, donations must be received by December 15th.  Please visit their site today and help bring an orphan home for Christmas!