The Big Boy Bed

This weekend Geoff and I thought it was time to move Luke into his toddler bed. We moved Tyler into his Elmo bed around the same time and he was a rock star -- he settled into his "big boy" bed with ease. At the time, we did not know how amazing that was, that Tyler had autism and a new transition such as this would be an incredible feat. Autistics have tremendous difficulty with transitions, and this was a HUGE one. So we pulled out the good ole' toddler bed and put it together Saturday night, getting it ready for our seemingly neurotypical little man. Geoff did not want to take down the crib -- thank God I listened to him!

Luke was enthralled with his bed and kept jumping up and down on it. Tyler stretched out on Luke's bed and said he wanted to spend the night in there and go "night night with Luke." For those of you who know how hard it is to get Tyler to sleep EVERY night, I was thinking this may be my lucky moment, a Godsend. Maybe he will finally go to sleep on his own and I will be at peace. If little brother can do it, then so can Tyler. Of course, these were the happy thoughts running through my mind and not real.

So it came time for all good little boys to go night night in their beds. I read Luke his bedtime stories, rocked him, sang his songs and recited all of the people who love him, "Mommy loves you, Daddy loves you, Tyler loves you..." A normal nighttime routine. Then, came time to put Luke in bed. He gladly lay down, put his head on his pillow and held his babies tightly. I left the room, feeling a sense of euphoria, like I had finally won a hard fought battle. Then the revolving door opened and the game of chase began. It was cute for a while, then just became exhausting. Geoff threw in the towel and then, so did I. We wanted to sleep and so we did!

To be continued ...