Big Boy Bed

Austin is officially on his way to being a big boy, if you count sleeping in a big boy bed as a requirement to being a big boy. (I suppose we have several obvious steps left to take towards this goal...using a toilet, tying shoes, balancing check book, etc., but he's definitely making progress!)

I was horribly apprehensive about this transition because it's so early! (He was only 16 months when we started!) And because, well to put it plainly, he doesn't exactly listen/obey oh so well. But to my surprise and amazement it is going splendidly!!

We started him out on just a mattress on the floor, surrounded by several blankets to act as "bumpers" to keep him from bonking the wall or falling out. It only took a day to realize that we needed something a little more significant to keep him falling out of the bed. This kid rolls in his sleep like none other! And he rolls in directions I wouldn't have imagined...like off the top of the bed. At least twice I found him underneath the crib, where if he had the stomach muscles to sit straight up, he would have severely whacked his noggin on the metal bar of the crib. So within two days we set up the toddler bed because it has rails that at least assist in keeping him in. It's open near the end bottom of the bed, but he only occasionally falls asleep down there and I believe has only fallen out once so far.

Now consciously staying in the bed is a whole other issue. For bedtime he almost never gets out. But naptime is a whole other problem. Unless he's exhausted, he tends to wander around the room for anywhere between 5 & 30 minutes, trying to wind down. He'll crawl in bed and then get up again, then crawl into bed again, etc. I try to let him figure it out himself and only intervene when he's definitely having a hard time winding down.

We took just about everything out of the room so there is as little temptation as possible, but he has still found ways to get into trouble. The 1st week he was fascinated with dresser drawers and took just about everything he could find out! The 2nd week, I made the mistake of leaving some boxes in his room, only to come in and find him standing two boxes high with one foot on the diaper champ, taking everything out of the topmost drawer of his dresser. And just two days ago, he discovered that the diaper champ was a fun place to stuff his snuggie blanket! Needless to say, the blankie did NOT smell good afterward and needed a good cleaning before being returned to him!

So, while he still hs a way to go before being a perfect little sleeper in his toddler bed, he's doing awesome! Our original plan was to see how it went by the time McKenna came and if necessary, put him back in the crib and her in a PackNPlay, but it doesn't look like we will have to!

Next step to being a big boy....balancing the check book! Toilets are overrated, right?


Round 1: Big Boy Bed Mattress


Week One Naptime Destruction






Um...perhaps some barriers of some sort are in order


Round 2: The actual Big Boy Bed


Doesn't he look so adorable and grown up in his bed???


Occasionally he still falls asleep in random positions in his bed. We go in and readjust him once he's asleep, especially since once I found that he had rolled off the bed and across the room without waking up!