Sleep training the Jack-man

I'm trying not to count my chickens before they hatch but this is the third night Jack has slept on a big boy bed and he did it all by himself!

Moms may appreciate this post more than others- it might just be boring. Sleep training isn't something I cared about until it was on my shoulders to do it my way with my kid. I have read a lot of what other moms have done to train their kids into a bed. I took bits and pieces from my readings and came up with my own plan of attack.

Over the past few months, I have tried to have him sleep in the bed but he was too excited or I was too tired to really try. And I was in no hurry. Im thinking it will be nice to not buy a second crib for baby 2. We are taking the slowly but surely route to getting Jack into his bed. Two months to go until baby 2 is here.

Night #1- It was past Jacks bedtime so he was really tired. He laid on his bed for a few minutes then came and laid with me on my bed in my exhausted vegetative state. It was 8:15pm by the way. He fell asleep on me which hasn't happened since he was a BABY baby. I put him on his bed, he rolled over and fell asleep!! He stayed there until 3am when he woke up and was disoriented so I put him back in his crib. I was exhausted too and didn't want to get up again before morning.

Night #2- I put a gate in his doorway because he can open the door. I put him in bed and said goodnight. After a while, he was whimpering at the gate but I let him do that for a few minutes before going in, putting him back in bed and saying goodnight. This happened two more times. I then laid him in his bed and rubbed his back for a minute then walked out. He was calm enough to stay there are fall asleep! Yea! He woke up at 6:45am which was a little early but I can't complain! He slept all night!

Night #3- Gate up, put him down and said good night. He spends 20 minutes walking around his room, opening and shutting the door, playing with his nightlight etc. during which time I told him to get back in bed once (which he didn't stay there for long). After a long silence, I peeked in- he was asleep on his bed! All by himself! He left the door wide open which is fine with me. He has a noise machine which helps him know when its time to sleep but also lets us do dishes and watch tv without having to be super silent.

That is the breakdown! I don't feel like I'm rushing him too much into a bed and I know all the things that come with a toddler in a bed instead of a crib but he's doing great. He's still napping in the crib- that's the next project. It's hard when he doesn't nap well because I teach in the afternoon. If he's grumpy, its game over. Thanks for reading!