Big Girl Bed

It's a brand new year and we are starting things out this year without a crib in the house. Chloe is officially in a big girl bed. This will be the first time in over 4 1/2 years that we have not had a crib. Amazing. I never thought this time would come and, frankly speaking, never really wanted to rush it.

I have always been a big fan of the crib. Mostly for one reason, and one reason alone....it's an amazing containment device!

I have a lot of friends who have great escape artist kids. Not me. Neither of my girls ever figured out that climbing out of the crib was an option. I also wasn't sure if Chloe would nap in a big girl bed with all of her toys so easily accessible.  I wasn't in any hurry to get her out of the crib, plus I kind of liked having a 'baby' in the house. I know she's 2, but I could still sometimes pretend I still had a baby.

I started to get a little nervous about how this would all play out at Christmas time. We planned a trip to my parents house and I knew Chloe was just too big for a pack & play and the only option was for both girls to share a room and each have their own twin air mattress. Since Chloe has never wanted to get rid of her crib, I was really worried about how things would work out at my parents house. Let's face it, it all boils down to "how much sleep is mom going to get" when weighing these options.  Anything that makes ME lose sleep is a VERY BAD THING.

So, I started talking up the idea of the girls sharing a bedroom and Grace was on board right away. She was thrilled at the idea of sleeping in the same room as Chloe and was excited to help 'teach' Chloe how to sleep in a big girl bed. Now that I had Grace on board, Chloe was really excited about it. We talked about it every day for a week before visiting Grandma and Grandpa.

Then the visit came. Bath. Stories. Bed. Lights out and 11 hours of sleep!  My kids sure have a way of totally surprising me! Chloe also took the liberty of putting herself down for a nap the following day and then did another 11 hour night in the big girl bed. This is much better than she does in the crib at home since she usually wakes herself up at least once a night rolling around and hitting her head on the crib slats.

The first thing on our agenda when we got home was to get that girl a bed! It came with a 14 hour night sleep and a 3 hour nap the following day. Amazing! While I don't expect that to become a trend, I'm going to enjoy it as long as possible.

Gore fun fact: Grace transitioned to a big girl bed exactly 2 year ago on January 1st as well.

The crib is now disassembled and ready for a new life at a friends home. Yay for big girls!