The "Big Girl Bed"

The first night after getting home from the hospital when she was born, Sophie slept in her crib in her room.  I have a picture of her in there.  She was so tiny!  Want to see??  Of course you do!  (And if not, just pretend.) :)

See how little she was with her newborn chubby face???  Awe... My little Sophie...

Finding a Twin Bed

Anyway, since we found out we were having another little one soon, we knew we wanted to move Sophie to a regular bed and put the baby in the crib.  No reason to buy another crib when we'd just have to buy a bed for her soon after anyway.  We had a yard sale in November and just about all the money we made from it was saved to purchase a twin size mattress and box springs.  I began looking in January.  I quickly realized that it would be difficult to buy a new mattress and box springs for $145, which is all I had set aside for it.  One day, while checking on a sale at Sears in our nearby town we do all of our business in, I was told that THAT day they began marking down the floor models on their beds in order to make room for new ones that had just arrived.  The sets were on sale for 50% off, plus for the floor model I could get an additional 70% off.  I walked out of there having bought a brand new mattress (Sealy brand even) and box springs for about $147.  Talk about the Lord working out miracles! 

Next Step: Bedding

Once we were able to get it home, we still had no bedding for it.  With no luck finding bedding we liked at our small town Walmart, I ordered a set online.  It took a while to get it in as it was originally lost in transit, but it finally arrived.  After washing it, putting the bed rail on correctly, and making her bed, she was finally able to sleep in it!

Where to Begin? Naptimes!

 

We began at naptime in order to transition slowly and try to let everyone get some sleep as she adjusted.  She loved going down for naps in it.  She would tell me she wanted to stay awake when I'd tell her it was naptime.  Once I said she was napping in her Big Girl Bed, she would yell "OK!" and head for her room.  Can you tell we had made a big deal about her bed to her??  Her first 2 days took an hour to get to sleep as she was playing with everything she could reach.  She hadn't fully figured out how to get back in bed easily so she just played with the books near her bed and her bed rail (which has a zipper on it she can easily unzip and zip).  After those first days, she began taking only about 20-30 minutes to fall asleep, which was normal for her in her crib.  She would ask to sleep in her bed at night, but I'd say tell her that she was sleeping in her crib that night.  She would just reply with her sweet "OK" and that'd be the end of it.  She did fall out of her bed one time during naptime, but that was after she was already awake, even if she was still a little groggy.  She just cried, then climbed back into bed by the time I walked in there, though she was still crying.  That didn't seem to be a big deal and she recovered quickly from the fall, thankfully!

Sophie's first naptime in her bed

Curious on how she fell asleep, this is what I found the first day.  Seems to be her preferred way to sleep in it.

After a few days in her bed, Brandon and I decided we did not like the quality of the bedding set we purchased.  We took a trip to the "big city" to go to a few stores to find more.  We found a beautiful set at Target and put it on the next day.  So much better!  I say this in case you are wondering why there are two different bedding sets in the pictures.

Her new bedding.  So much prettier!

The Final Transition: Nighttime

Yesterday, as many of you know, I decided to let Sophie sleep in her Big Girl Bed at night for the first time.  We moved the bed to where the crib was so that it was in a familiar place in her room in case she woke up confused.  She was so excited to go to bed last night!!  She was already trying to crawl into bed before telling anyone goodnight, brushing her teeth, or even changing into her pajamas.  She was ready for bed!  Once we did get ready, she laid down just fine and went to sleep almost immediately.

Sophie on her last morning in her crib.  Such a big girl now!

Her Big Girl Bed in its permanent place in her room.

She slept really well for most of the night.  She moved and made her normal noises at night like usual.  The problem arose just after 5 am.  I was finally back asleep (hard to come by at this point in my pregnancy) after Brandon left for work, though not for long.  I woke to hearing her crying.  It was a cry like something was wrong, but as I was waking I was just thinking she was confused about her bed.  I laid there thinking that she needed to calm herself down and go back to sleep.  As I came to a little more, I realized that what had woken me first was not her crying but rather a loud "THUD!"  I decided I'd better go check on her.  Sure enough, as soon as I opened the door, my crying girl told me, "Momma, I fell!!"  It was a little heartbreaking to know that I was laying in bed those few minutes listening to her crying and she was curled up on the floor from falling out of bed.  She didn't seem to have moved from where she fell.  I am not really sure how she fell as the place she fell out of and in the way she was laying did not add up to me.  There was only about a foot of space between the wall and the bed rail on the side of the bed.  Sophie sleeps in her bed sideways, half of her body on her pillow or parallel with her pillow, with her feet on the wall or her rail (see picture above for a better visual).  She was laying in the floor with her feet on the wall, her head towards the end of the bed, on her side in the fetal position.  She seemed to freeze when she hit the floor, moving nothing but her mouth to cry out to me.  It was very sad to see!

I picked her up and rocked with her laying on me for several minutes to calm her down and try to get her back to sleepy mode.  I did not spend a lot of time making a big deal out of her falling, just asking and checking that she was alright and nothing was hurt.  I was so afraid she wouldn't want to lay back down in bed.  She did kind of whimper as I went to lay her back down, but I just smiled and tried to remain excited about her Big Girl Bed.  It seemed to work.  Well, that and singing to her and patting her back as I did when she was in her crib awake in the middle of the night.  I finally bid her goodnight and went back to bed.  I never heard anything else from her the rest of the night.

Good morning!

This morning she woke crying, but that's normal these days.  I usually wait for her to fully wake up before going in there anyway because then she's usually all smiles and greets me with a super enthusiastic "Hi Momma!"  That's much better than crying.  :)  I was laying in bed waiting trying to suck out every second of bed I could before rolling on out of it, when she stopped crying.  I then heard her moving, followed by footsteps, then a "Hello?" echoing down the hallway.  I said hello back and she ran to my room.  She was in a good mood by then!  She helped me put my glasses on, my hair up, and getting out of bed.  

What struck me as funny was she never got out of bed when she woke up at naptime so I thought it wouldn't be an issue.  Turns out, we will have to go over not getting up until Momma or Daddy comes.  I don't want to see her at my bedside in the middle of the night or I'll never get back to sleep! 

Overall, I'd say it was a successful night.  We are going to move the bed rail to block the gap we currently have between the rail and the bed.  She will have her rail on the entire upper half of her bed.  Since she sleeps right on or next to her pillow, I don't expect any problems.  If she falls off after that, then she has to go over the rail and I can't help her learn to not do that.  She has to.