Vintage Post: Big Boy Bed

**Vintage posts are entries that I am way behind in posting. :) These will be eventually refiled into the appropriate date range.**

April 6, 2011

After our trip to Great Wolf Lodge at the end of February, we figured out that Caiden managed a big bed pretty well. I've been nervous about moving him into his own bed since it means we lose the guarantee of keeping him in bed that the crib offered. But Ezra really needs to move out of our room and into his own room (and out of the pack 'n' play), so it has become time to let go and move Caiden on to the next big step.

We've been prepping him and counting down to the big move (needed to wait until after our March and April visitors had come and gone), and the day finally arrived! B disassembled his crib, moved the former guest bed into his room and put on the Toy Story sheets we got him for his birthday. I couldn't believe how grown up his room looked with that change! But since it is a full sized bed, Caiden looked so adorably tiny in this big bed surrounded by fluffy blankets, pillows and all his stuffed animals.

I was really worried about 1) him falling out of bed and 2) him getting in and out of bed willy nilly. I asked for advice on Facebook, and our awesome friends gave me some really great ideas! One thing we did was set up strict rules about when he is allowed to get out of bed. Another thing we did was put a long body pillow along the outside edge of his bed so that he had a marker for getting to close to the edge. He did fantastically his first night as far as staying put goes. However, I think he was super excited because it took him a long time to fall asleep. The next few nights he dutifully followed the rule for staying in bed, but couldn't resist hanging out in the window that was so close to his head. One night he gave me a near heart attack when I came up to check on him only to discover him dancing on the window ledge with the window wide open (thankfully the screen was intact). This prompted a re-arrangement of the room and a search for quality window locks.

After a couple of weeks, the novelty has worn off, and he does an excellent job of going to sleep for both nap and bedtime, and he stays put. We've been fortunate that he has followed the rule for staying in bed until we come get him, and I hope he continues to do so. As for the crib, I made the mistake of forgetting to ask him if it was OK that Ezra starts sleeping there. He was a little upset at first, but after I properly asked him if he'd let Ezra sleep there, he agreed and has had no problems ever since. He's such a great little guy!! :)