Our "Big Boy Bed" Adventure

With Ethan's little brother on the way in January, we wanted to transition Ethan to his own bed.  While one of the main goals was to make room for "Wee Two," we wanted to do it with plenty of time for him to adjust and not to relate any negative feelings about the change to the arrival of his little bro.

While I was in Italy, somehow Chris found spare time to build the bed I had purchased and left in boxes.  He knew I would want to be there for the debut, so Ethan didn't see it until we were ready to transition him for good.

The plan is for the boys to share a room after the littlest starts sleeping through the night more and doesn't need to be in our room for constant night feedings.   What is that saying about what happens when God hears you make plans, he laughs?  We'll see how it goes, but the ideal is for that to be the room to sleep and we can preserve the larger and more sunlit room as the play room (and space for guests to stay).

 Our friend Marci found this awesome book for Ethan to help introduce the idea.

Just like his Mommy, Ethan studied the new material dutifully and planned how to apply theory into practice.

 We tried to make it as enticing as possible, including many of his favorite loves... blocks, dinosaurs, books, FSU bear, and of course.. BALLS!  Could my son be any more of a stereotype of a boy?  Good thing he likes those baby dolls too to even things out a bit!

After reading his book and talking up the prospect of a "big boy bed" for days, we finally debuted it!  He lept on the bed and identified the different balls and his new triceratops dinosaur ("Tops" as he calls him, they're tight like that).

Despite the daytime excitement, the nighttime didn't go as smoothly.  It took two and a half hours to get him to sleep, and he woke crying for "Mommy?!" every hour or so after that.  Neither of us slept very well that night. 

 A clever observer might notice somethings are missing from the photo above of Ethan's goodnight story with Daddy.  Half of the enticing objects on the bookshelf we used for the big sell had to be removed to allow for a big sleep.  If only I had figured that out before night one! 

I entered night two expecting another long night of pacing and Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars.  Boy was I surprised to find him ask for his "big boy bed" and go to sleep within 30 minutes.  He woke up once!  The next night went even better, and continued like that night after night.  By night 6, he slept through the night in his own bed in his own room from 7pm-6:30am!  He didn't do that before he was in his own bed!  He used to wake up several times a night AND usually wake at 4:30am.  Weeks later, he sometimes wakes around 3am looking for reassurance or wakes around 5:30am and has to be told to wait to get up until "Mr. Sun" gets up.  But all in all, waiting until 2 years old to do this worked remarkably smoothly!  

 He doesn't always get the direction right. 

 "Tops" looking over his shoulder, his latest "lovey."

I must admit, his growing up in this way would be more bittersweet if I didn't have another little boy wriggling around in my belly reminding me that we are starting these sleepless nights soon enough!