I was in the camp of CRIB FOR LIFE for a long time. She loved her crib. She slept wonderfully in her crib. She has been able to climb out of it for nearly 2 years now but she just didn't. We put her in there and she went to sleep. She liked being in there.
Want to know what finally made me make the change? Gymnastics. Blakely learned how to do rolls over the bar at gymnastics and then that very same afternoon decided the she could do those same rolls over the rail of her crib. Here is the video of her first learning this. At first she would let go and land on the mat on her back but by the end of class she had it down and did about 20 of these things in a row.
Yeah...not safe to flip out of the crib.
Lonnie and I started talking about it and decided that we didn't want to convert the crib to a toddler bed just to have to convert it back in a few months for a new baby (please, universe, please!) and then still have to get Blakely used to a new bed. There is a queen bed in her room already so we thought we would just move her to that bed. Will she fall off the queen bed? We weren't sure but it is pretty high because it has a mattress topper on it as well as box springs and a frame. I didn't want to put the mattress on the floor because that meant storing box springs and a bed frame somewhere in my house. I am in a major purge mode and am trying to get rid of all our excess junk. The idea of that just laying around....no.
So we just went for it and put her in the super big girl bed. We laid pillows all around the sides of the bed and lined her 50 peeps up on the sides of the bed as well.
Seriously a lot of peeps...
She freaking loves it. Has never looked back. She doesn't move a lot when she sleeps so falling off the bed hasn't been an issue. Sometimes she gets turned sideways but eventually finds her way back to her pillow. The best part? It is so much easier to put her down at night. I can get in the bed and snuggle with her while we read and sing songs. Then we give kisses and she is already in a comfy position and goes right to sleep when I leave. It rocks.
We have had a few nights where she called me back down there a few times for "another hug and kiss" but other than that the transition has been smooth. The first week or so I would go back down there immediately if she started calling for me because I didn't want her to get out of the bed. That seemed to work because she doesn't get out and always waits for me to come and get her in the morning. Sweet!
I would say the most negative thing about it so far is that she is waking up earlier! Ugh! She usually sleeps until 7:30 but since this change she wakes up at 6. Wayyyy too early for this mama. Slowly but surely she is sleeping later. We have made it to about 6:45 now and I am hoping to get back to the 7:30 routine since I function a lot better at that hour.
I am so happy my girl loves her big girl bed! The plan is to leave her there until we have another baby or don't and then we will make her a big girl room with her own new bed. Ideally I will get pregnant in about 2 weeks (again, please universe!) the new baby will get Blakely's room with all the same furniture and then we can make Blakely a new big girl room. I am trying not to plan that out too much but it is pretty hard. Infertility puts your life on hold so much. Anyway, I am thankful the transition went well and I am sure that now I have typed all this out that she will hate the bed from now on and get up 23 times per night. Hopefully not ;)
