On This Episode of Cribs

I've been battling a transition that all mothers experience.When do we move our toddler into a Big Boy Bed?We have been really lucky with Bubba. Not once did he attempt to escape from his crib. He didn't try to scale the side, catapult over the top or escape under the cover of darkness. But don't be fooled, had he, we would have been ready.As such I was hesitant to make the transition to a big bed for several reasons:1) If it ain't broke, don't fix it2) I know, for a fact, when I put both children to bed, they will stay where I put them.3) What if he doesn't want to be in a big bed?

Then came the other side of the coin:1) Bubba has a few upcoming experiences that would be better suited to big boy bed sleeping than a crib2) He's a string bean and tends to find himself contorted in odd positions when confined to the space of a crib.3) We keep telling him he's a big boy (getting ready for potty-training) yet we have him in what he calls a baby crib.Fiiiiine. We'll switch him.I had done a little searching, online of course, for different options for beds. His crib converts to a toddler bed, but it doesn't get any longer, we would simply remove a side. Nope, that won't work.I located an IKEA bed that had a cool canopy on top and could flip over to become a loft bed once he was ready for it. Dual purpose? Totally, sweet.After doing a bit more thinking we decided to hold off... until...A friend and mentor of mine posted that she was redecorating her kids' rooms and was replacing her son's bed. Low, and behold, it was the same.IKEA.bed we had considered weeks before.Okay, I hear you, get the blasted bed. We linked up and it worked out so that we could get the bed for Bubba to use.Fast Forward to this weekend.Hubs decided to put the bed up on Friday night and completely dismantle the crib at the same time.Okay- guess we're really doing this.Of course, Bubba had to help put together his big boy bed, he couldn't contain his excitement. Build bed, find sheets, make bed, convince Bubba he's going to sleep there. Sounds easy right? Surprisingly, it wasn't too difficult, apart from the fact that Bubba wanted to stay up in general. His avoidance of bedtime had nothing to do with the new bed. He loved the new bed, enough that he even thanked Ms.DK with a photo and video to send to her.So, into bed he went, and then we waited for the pitter-patter of tiny feet across the floor upstairs.nothingWe waiting for the creak of his door, or worse, his sister's door while she slept.nothingWe went to bed and tossed fitfully waiting for the unmistakable sound of boy-hitting-floor-unexpectedly.nothingFinally, we waited for him to wake us up at the first peek of sunlight.nothingIn fact, he didn't get out of bed until we went in to greet him. Score!The next hurdle was naptime. Could he really have another positive big boy bed experience?Yep! Naptime, success! Bedtime night number two was further excited by the addition of brand-new Thomas the Tank sheets! So far, so good. We'll see how long this lasts. Nothing says big boy bed like getting poked in the eyeball at 3am because he figured out he was free to roam about the top floor... I'll let you know if and when that happens.Wish us luck!Be Great,Sleepless MommyM