Bringing Down the Wall

There's something missing in this picture.  Can you tell what it is?

One side.  One side that makes this bed a crib.  The crib has officially been converted into a big girl bed.

And that missing side is making this big girl very, very happy!

You see, she's been cooped up on the other side of the room staring at this big boy bed.

She's watched this big boy get up and down out of his bed at his leisure while she was stuck crying out for someone to remove her from her bed.  Not so cool when you really, really like to do things all by yourself!

Initially, I had my hang-ups about turning her crib into a bed. The size of my belly, coupled with my sore back and the number of times she was needing me to lay her back down each night quickly made it obvious that the time had come.  She took her last nap in the crib, then watched in wonder as I gave her some big girl freedom by way taking down one jail-like wall.  I was pretty nervous that I was going to regret my decision when I found myself chasing her back to bed over and over and over again that night.  After all, her brother used to spend an hour or more playing that game when he moved into his big boy bed.  Hey, he still does that.  I armed myself with lots of time and plenty of goodnight stories to make her extra sleepy that night.  We read all the stories, sang several songs and got all tucked into bed.  I stayed in her room as she fell asleep just to be sure she knew that everything was still the same.  She seemed a little cautious about the missing side and checked to see that I was still there every few minutes, but in 20 minutes or less, with *no* crying (a very welcome change from the half hour or more she's been doing the past month or so) she was out like a light.  And rather than waking me up to soothe her to sleep five or six times like she had been, I didn't hear from her. at all.  until I opened my eyes to see her pretty little face looking at me at six in the morning!!!   

THE GLORY!!!!!  

Now, two night times and two nap times later, I lay her down, walk out of the room and she falls asleep and stays asleep!  We couldn't be happier with the change around here.  The only thing that would make it better is if Lawson would follow suit and stay in his bed all night!  But, I'll take what I can get and being woken up several less times per night is bound to make a big difference for all of us! 

Yes, it seems that fourth wall was the holding the key to all of our night time happiness.  It's always a little bittersweet to watch the kids reach a milestone that make them more grown up and independent.  Mostly just sweet, luckily.  The sap in me gets a little choked up at the thought of never reaching over that crib wall to pick up my sweet little baby Num Num again.  But, mostly I'm just super excited that I never have to reach over that crib wall to pick up my sweet little baby Num Num.  Now, my feet never hit the ground and she comes to me for early morning snuggles!  Really, it's a much better deal!  And with her recent interest in the potty, I'm thinking this is a necessary step in her rapid progression toward potty training.  

And with that, I officially say goodbye to whatever was left of her babyhood.