Caroline is spending her first night in a big girl bed. Well, half of a big girl bed -- the bed itself is not actually here yet. But in typically poor timing, the mattress and box spring arrived yesterday, a full week ahead of the bed, and had been propped up against Caroline's wall since yesterday. When I went to put her to bed (in her crib) last night, she started crying "no more crib for me! no more crib for me!" I decided to just bite the bullet and make the move tonight.
The original decision to move Caroline to a bed now was just made a couple of weeks ago. David and I both kind of wanted to keep her in her crib as long possible (without actually crossing the weirdo line) and were in no hurry to move her. She has been our best sleeper from the beginning. Even back in the first few months of her life when she would scream her fool head off all day long, she would give us six solid hours at night. She was a 7 p.m. to 8 a.m. sleeper for a LONG time. We saw no good reason to mess with that if she was happy in the crib, especially since her big siblings have a way of wandering downstairs in the middle of the night and joining us in our queen sized bed. It gets awfully crowded in there, and I've spent many a night clutching the edge of the bed to avoid hitting the cold floor. We kind of figured that as soon as we moved Caroline to a bed, our next purchase would have to be a king sized bed so that we could more comfortably accommodate the whole darn family.
Anyway, then we went to the beach -- in JULY -- and Caroline has slept poorly ever since. (as an aside: THIS IS WHY WE STAY HOME!!!) She has trouble falling asleep at night and has been waking up once or twice at night for the past two months. Suddenly the "but she's such a great sleeper!" factor didn't seem so compelling. We decided to just get the transition over with while she was already sleeping like crap.
{wow, I apparently have a lot to say about Caroline moving to a big girl bed!}
The anticipation of the big girl bed has been really fun to watch. This is the first time we really got to watch one of our kids get excited about moving out of the crib. Jacob started jumping out of his crib at 17 months, slept next to his toddler bed (not in it) on a fold-out Elmo couch for about 6 months, and then finally moved into a big boy bed around age 2. He was way too young to appreciate the momentous occasion. Elizabeth got booted out of the crib when we moved into our new house (when she was 2.5) to make room for Caroline, who was coming the next month. Between the new house, new room, new baby sister, etc., Elizabeth's new bed was kind of anticlimactic.
One last play session in the crib:
But Caroline is plenty old enough to understand what this all means, and we have absolutely nothing else going on -- Jacob is researching dogs for us to buy in 2014, but other than that, Caroline moving to a big girl bed is pretty much the most exciting thing happening around here, and Jacob, Elizabeth and I are more than happy to hype it for all it's worth!
When I bought the mattress, I was looking for something good for a small child (i.e., cheap) but I wanted something that could hold up to the abuse that kids are capable of dishing out to beds. I asked the sales guy if, hypothetically, a child were to jump on the bed -- not that we expected that to happen, but if it did -- would the mattress be able to handle that kind of occasional, unexpected misuse? I was just wondering about mattress quality, that's all. The sales guy laughed and said that the mattress could handle it (not that he would ever encourage bed jumping, or be held liable for injuries to persons or property that might occur during the course of bed jumping).
Well, Caroline and her siblings immediately tested out the new bed, and it seems to be just right. As I write right now, I am positive that she has not yet figured out that she can get up and move freely about the house. I give that two days. For now, she is in her bed and happy to be there. The last vestige of the baby years will soon be hauled up to the attic. My baby is growing up!
2 comments:
I don't think your limb chop is bad because it is not exactly at a joint... Right? :) I'm glad Caroline is excited about her new bed. Boo to her baby years being over, though.
Aww, that's very sweet. And it is really nice that you can make a big deal about it, because, let's face it, the third child doesn't always get as much hype as the first ones. I hope Caroline is loving her bed so much she doesn't even want to get up and wander about the room after lights out!
gina
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