Big Girl Bed

Grace has officially been moved into a Big Girl Bed! We moved her furniture around a little bit, secured her dresser to the wall and put the toddler rail on her bed. It was an eye opening experience for me. As I stood in her nursery and looked at what use to be her crib I couldn't help but think that she wasn't my baby anymore. She was becoming a little girl. She is being given responsibility, trust and freedom.
No more crib!

When we brought her in she was a little confused by it but then very excited that she could climb on and off her bed just like she does the couch. She immediately started to bring all her stuffed animals over to the bed so that they could sleep with her. She also jumped up and down on it and ran back and forth on it like she use to in her crib. At least some things wont change!
She needed alll her friends!

The first few nights were challenging. Bed time became a two hour event! We would put her in bed and kiss her goodnight and leave the room. She soon discovered that she can open doors now! She we would hear her run down the hall and try and hide from us. We would do this over and over and over again until finally she would get tired and go to sleep! I would prefer her just get up and play but she doesn't want to play with toys, she wants to play with us! Nap time was the same issue. It got to the point where I would let her fall asleep in her highchair after lunch so that I could just lay her in bed. We decided to borrow a baby gate from Jake Sarah to put in the hall so that if she did open her door she couldn't race around the house, especially in the morning!! This worked really well! When she would open her door we would just tell her to get back in bed and she would. While this still made bedtime a production, it cut the time down a lot. The hours of sleep she gets in a day has also been affected. Where she use to sleep for twelve hours at night she now gets nine hours and her three hour naps have also been cut down to one! She has been tired and cranky the last few days, but I think once she gets use to the schedule it will be better.

One night when I went to go cover her up before I went to bed I found her like this!

Poor thing! She just wants to be with her Mommy! Going through this has tugged at my heart strings a lot because when she stands at the gate she cries for her Mommy. When she gets upset I will go in there and rock her for a little bit but when I try to put her in bed she wakes up and cries. She has never really let me rock her and now she wants me to! I can tell that it is going to be a process getting her use to staying in bed. When she is able to climb over the gate I don't know what I am going to do!

My big girl!