Big Girl Bed

Well, P is officially in a "big girl bed." In our world that is taking down the front sliding side of our 3-in-1 crib. Yesterday she was climbing out of her crib and hubby happened to see her maneuvering herself over the top of the rail like a little squirrel, and totally freaked out. She was about to fall about 4 feet onto her hardwood floor. I was out and came back to hubby wide-eyed and kind of shaking. What he saw he said made him really scared and immediately put him into protection of his girl mode. When I got in the door P was running down the stairs all excited telling mommy that she has a big girl bed. I was a bit shocked. I was left out of the taking down of the rail ceremony? I live for these types of moments. So, I was a bit peeved - mainly because it didn't happen like I wanted it to happen. I am so selfish sometimes! :) I admit it. We knew it was coming, we just wanted the transition to be on our timeline, not our darling daughter's. My plan was to talk to her about it for a few weeks, shop for a new pillow or something to celebrate, explain what it meant, yadda, yadda, yadda. Oh well, best laid plans never really work out when you have kids. We actually did go looking for a bed a few weeks ago. We found an adorable single that could have a princess "castle" type thingy added on, stilts to create an under-the-bed hideaway, a slide and a stairs for her to climb. We definitely would put the bed on the ground first...mommy would have to wait a few years for the loft part to go into effect...if at all. But, P loved the bed when we were at the showroom, and we really liked it for her.

So, how did the whole thing go? Well, it didn't go well yesterday. I tried to put her down for her afternoon nap and you would have thought I was driving stakes into her eyes. She was screaming bloody murder. She DID NOT want to go into the bed. I eventually had to leave the room and let her bang on the door, scream, throw things, cry and cry and cry some more, and then she went to sleep. It was HORRIBLE. I hated not being able to make whatever she was feeling so upset about go away. I couldn't put her in danger by putting the rail back up. Then putting her to bed last night was the same thing, but it didn't last as long, and she slept in it all night long! hooray! The picture above is me sneaking into her room this morning to see where she slept, and low and behold it was where I was hoping she'd be. I put E's crib mattress next to her bed in case she fell out during the night to hopefully lessen the chance of injury or fear.

So, this morning I decided that when she woke up we'd have "You slept in your big girl bed party." I happened to have a Real Monsters party kit from a while ago and a present I was going to give her on the plane when I was supposed to go to Oregon in May (trip never happened). I put party hats on Ethan and myself and came into her room celebrating that she slept in her big girl bed. I gave her the present and hung out in the bed (well, I was on the floor because the bed is only supposed to hold 50 pounds...uhmmm...). We read books, we sang "Happy Big Girl Bed Day" song to the tune of "Happy Birthday" and listend to a little U2, Beck and Sara Trevares. It was so much fun.


I hope that the party and the getting over the first night sleeping in her bed hurdle will make it easier for her today. I am already dreading putting her down for her nap. I really hope it isn't another mushroom cloud. For now it is all grins and giggles!