Big Boy Bed

I’ve told you before about our Little Guy and his issues with sleeping. For a while now, we’ve been thinking it might be time to give him a big boy bed (actually convert his crib to a toddler bed, but you get the idea). Our thought was that maybe he might choose to sleep in on occasion if the choice was truly his.

So last week Hubby converted the crib while I kept Little Guy busy elsewhere. When the transition was complete, we lead him into his little room. We didn’t say anything or point out what had changed. We watched closely to see if he would even notice. Within moments he did. He put his hand to his mouth, and said, “Oh NO! Mine bed BROKE!” We quickly assured him that it wasn’t broken, and that in fact it was now a “Big Boy Bed”, and we urged him to climb in.

The quilt on his bed is one I made (with the help of my Mom and Grandma) while I was pregnant with Little Guy.  The dinos and cowboy are all stuffed creatures that I've madefor him recently.  The contraption hanging on the side is his Fisher Price rain forest, which hs's had since he was an infant. 
He likes to be surrounded by things he loves (don't we all?)

 He loved it right away. That first day he climbed in and out about a hundred times. He would climb under the covers and pretend to sleep (eyes scrunched tight, and making snoring noises while trying not to giggle). We kept him very busy that day so that when nighttime came, he quickly drifted off to dreamland.
Since then it’s been touch and go. Bedtime can be tricky if he doesn’t think he’s ready to go to sleep. We have extra snuggle time some nights. Other times we sing extra songs. Some nights he goes right to bed no problem. Those nights are becoming more the norm, thankfully. And once asleep, he has been staying put throughout the night for the most part, and for that we are very, very grateful.

Last night as we were going through our bedtime routine, I could tell he really didn’t want to lay down. He was stalling. I gave him a kiss and assured him that if he needed anything at all I’d be right across the hallway.

He looked up at me with a mischievous expression, and said, “Mommy, I need chips!” Then we both laughed and he settled down into his covers to be tucked in for the night.

So far, the “Big Boy Bed” experiment has been a success. We’re very happy we made the switch, and our Little Guy is happy we made it too.