Today, a champion sleeper in a big-girl bed! (though we have not risked taking a picture of her sleeping in it yet!)You might be thinking, "isn't she a little old to still be sleeping in a crib?" We held off on this "milestone" longer than many families, which is consistent with our child-sleep philosophy of keeping what works for as long as possible, to encourage continued good sleep habits. Isabel was happy in her crib and has never once tried to climb out. When Josiah was born, she was just over 2 and we were not ready to move her into a big-girl bed to hand her crib down to Josiah. Instead, we bought her a new crib that has the ability to convert to a toddler bed and then eventually to a full-sized bed frame, so the expense of a new crib was worth it since it will be the bed she will have until she leaves for college someday! I was the holdout on converting it to a toddler bed, as I am usually more worried about these types of things than Luke is. Even though she has likely been ready for months, I wanted to be 350% sure that a) having no crib rail would not cause any bedtime battles, and b) that Josiah was very consistently sleeping through the night because I did not want to be dealing with two children in the wee hours of the night! :)
So for the past couple of weeks, we have gotten her very excited about her big-girl bed, and actually used it as a "reward" on the sticker chart we have been using with her (she gets a sticker for having a happy drop-off at school in the morning and another sticker for getting herself all ready for bed at night, only asking Mommy and Daddy for help when she really needs it). She earned the big-girl bed reward prior to this weekend, so when Saturday rolled around, we knew that when she took her afternoon nap, it would be the last time she slept in a crib! After she woke up, Luke started the process of taking the outer crib rail off and putting up the guard rail that will prevent her from falling out of bed (I am thankful for the guard rail). The most fun thing about this part (in Isabel's mind) was using her mattress as a trampoline as it was sitting in the middle of her bedroom floor!
For the last part of the project, we shooed her out of her room so it would be a surprise when she came in and saw the finished product (side note - I just love her girly room and the bed turned out so cute!).
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| The wall emblem says "Small in size, but destined for big things" - perfect for our petite daughter! |
She was so excited when she saw it (she even cooperated by shrieking at a hushed volume so as not to wake her brother)! She promptly ran over and hopped up into bed, proclaiming "I don't need any help. I can get up here all by myself!" When it came time for actual bedtime, Luke reported back that she went to bed just as well as she would have, had the crib still been up. And now we have had three nights of her sleeping in her bed, so I am officially declaring it as a smooth transition! The first two mornings, she was sitting up or standing up in bed when I came in, but this morning, she was on her floor reading books, and she looked up at me to see how I would react with her being out of bed. I was totally nonchalant, and she got this funny grin on her face and looked up at me, saying "Mommy, I got out of bed and am on my floor reading books. Is that funny!?!?" I said it was funny, and that was that. I am perfectly fine with her entertaining herself in her room in the morning as long as she doesn't start getting up too early. If that starts happening, we are going to get her a digital clock and tell her she needs to stay in bed until she sees the first number is a "7"!
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| Our little girl, one step closer to big-girldom. Mommy has mixed emotions about this (~sigh~) |
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| We love you too, sweet girl! |
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