Breaking Through the Fourth Wall

For the longest time, Asher knew how to climb out of his crib, but didn't do so until we got him in the morning.  So, even on nights when he didn't want to go to bed, and even on mornings when he was raring to get going, he would stay in his crib.

Then, literally in the course of one day, the crib could no longer contain him.  One night, he resisted going to bed, and kept climbing out, and we had to keep putting him back in.  At one point, we thought he had finally given up, only to hear the little pitter-patter of feet coming up the stairs to see us. Then, in the morning, I came back from an outdoor run and there he was, waiting for me in the foyer area outside his room.

Within a day, we took off the fourth wall of his crib to convert it into a toddler bed, and bought and secured a latch on his door.  That night, we explained to him that he had to stay in his room, but without the fourth wall he could now climb in and out of bed as much as he wanted, say if he felt he had to go across the room to get more stuffed animals.

He resisted, mightily.  Even though we've done "sleep training" with all out kids (i.e. let 'em cry it out), him wailing in his room (while we watched on a video monitor we borrowed from a friend) was hard to bear.

It went like this for two or three painful nights, but eventually he adjusted.  It went from violent protests to whimpering when he knew it was time to shut the door to various age-appropriate methods of stalling bedtime (ah, the wild goose chase for an elusive monster truck), but finally we are back to equilibrium.  He gets into bed, and stays there til the morning.  He doesn't even get out of his bed until we come in.  Another milestone achieved.