When Lilly turned one (yes over a year ago), I started having this panicky feeling in the back of my mind. At one my twins learned how to climb out of their cribs and into each other’s crib. I blogged about it on hellobee a while back. From there is was just a nightmare of toddler beds and horrendous bedtimes and non existent nap times. I feared going through this again more than anything.  Luckily she held off for a bit. I could see her little mind working on how to get out of her baby prison, but she didn’t even try to get her legs over the side.

At a year and a half I came in to get her after nap time and she had one leg over the side and was laying on the edge of her crib.  I told her that was a no no and she needed to stay in her crib and wait for mommy or she would fall. She immediately plopped back into her crib jumping and smiling saying, “no fall mommy, I wait.” I was shocked.  When I told my boys no and stay in bed, they laughed and jumped out. I tell you one girl is way different than three boys, thank goodness!
A few months passed and she didn’t attempt to get out
again. I can’t tell you how relieved I was. Then one day, a month before she turned two, there was no stopping the inevitable.  She wanted to get out and she wanted to do it herself. Three times in a row she was attempting to climb out and got her leg stuck in the slats when she fell down.  We tried telling her no, but clearly it wasn’t’ going to work this time. It was a Sunday afternoon and I just told Mr. Train that we had to bring the toddler bed.

I sat on the couch and cried. Of course Mr. Train thought it was because my baby girl was meeting one more milestone, marking the inevitable passing of time. (Ok so that may have caused some of the tears… my last baby is not a baby anymore.) But when he asked what was wrong, I simply sobbed, “Do you remember how hard this was?  Do you remember how miserable bed time was? Do you remember how they built slides out of their mattresses and bounced off the furniture like monkeys?”
He just laughed and went about dismantling her crib.  I was terrified.  I was so convinced that it would be a nightmare to get her used to the big girl bed because the boys were so much trouble.

We tried to make it special for her, even though it was a bit spur of the moment.  For the boys we took a day to make their new beds and buy them a new blanket and toy.  Then we surprised them with their new room.  Since Lilly was watching us take down her crib during what should have been her nap time, there really was no surprise.  Instead, we took out a blanket my sister had given us that she had never seen (that counts a new right?). It was a bright pink silky princess blanket so she was super excited. As soon as we put the blanket on the bed, she jumped in bed with her pretend phone and called Grandma to tell her she had a new bed. We also took her to Target to pick out a new dolly to take to bed with her that night in her new big girl bed. She seemed very excited and I tried to keep a positive attitude.

2 going on 13…. it’s a little scary.
That night we changed our routine a bit.  Instead of reading a story on the couch, we took her into her bedroom to read so she could have some time in her room with us.  After stories and a lullaby, we told her to put her head down and stay in bed.  She got up a few times and laughed as she ran back into her room.  Mr. Train said he would put up a baby gate if she came out again.  She did and up the gate went.  She of course threw a gigantic fit about the gate blocking her doorway. Mr. Train explained if she  got in bed and stayed in bed, he would take it down. He stated it so simply as if he were talking to a rational adult instead of a tantrum throwing toddler.  To our surprise she turned the fit off said, “OK daddy” and went back to bed.
That was the end of it.  She sat in bed looking at a book for about 10 minutes, then covered herself up and fell asleep.
Picking out her special new doll for bedtime.
I was dumbfounded to say the least.  I knew this was just a lucky first night and at some point she would make me miserable for months of bed times. That night never came.  She has been a great little girl and taken to her big girl bed quite easily.  There are some nights when she throws a bit of a fit (usually when she is overtired), but then when she calms down she reads to herself for a bit and lays down.  She does like to take every blanket, pillow, doll and stuffed animal that she owns to bed.  If we disturb her little nest, she gets very agitated.  So we wait for her to fall asleep and then uncover her from her mounds of toys so she actually has room on her bed to move a bit.  We came in one night and she was literally covered from neck to feet in stuffed animals and six different blankets.  We could barely see her little face peeking out from under all her friends.
My little sweetheart sleeping soundly.
I am just shocked that this transition was not the traumatizing mess that it was with the boys.  All that worry and stress was for nothing and I admit I feel a little foolish.  She really pleasantly surprised me.  Next event to tackle is potty training (which was also a bit daunting with the three boys). Wish me luck!

How did you transition your little one to a bed?  How did It go?