Movin' on up!

Doesn't he look extra happy about something?



This was the week Aaron moved out of his crib, and into his big bed. To say I had been dreading this step in development would be a bit of an understatement. Aaron is so much busier than Meredith ever has been.....the prospect of putting him in a bed he could get out of was disheartening to say the least! I love my sleep, and wasn't keen to start missing it again!
We've had some test runs, most of which have gone somewhat miserably. At the camper last summer we had Aaron sleep in one of the big beds to avoid putting the playpen back in. It took close to an hour every nap time and night to get him to sleep, and there was simply just no leaving him to manage to fall asleep on his own. The most memorable evening of trying that resulted in him removing the screen from the emergency exit window, and putting his head between the slats of the mini-blinds. We tried staying at a hotel with friends on Boxing Day, and I ended up driving Aaron home to sleep in his crib after two hours of trying to get him to sleep in the hotel room. His lap-sleeping suppertime antics in Mexico spared us a week full of painful bedtimes there!
The strategy we used with Meredith was to take the side off the crib to convert it to a toddler bed. On the first night we told her she could not get out of the bed on her own, and needed to call for Mom or Dad if she wanted to get out. We told her the side would go back on the crib if she got out of the bed. And to our amazement, she stayed in bed. In fact she incorporated the message so well that just this past year we had to reprogram her with a new message! We concluded that now, at age 5, she was old enough to go to the basement to play if she woke up early on a weekend and nobody else was awake.
We had no confidence that the same sort of conditions would work for Aaron, and yet by some miracle, they did! And some proud of his big bed is he!

Perhaps working in our favour is the fact that his big bed is a lovely loft bed, passed on to us by Aunt Judy, which he is unable to climb out of independently. The logic of raising a toddler higher off the ground to keep him from getting out of bed is questionable, yet remarkably effective. We're seven days in, and no head injury to report, so I'm proclaiming it a success.

Perhaps they are more alike than I think...

And so the crib that I well remember assembling with a giant pregnant belly in my way in our little house on Amherst Street was taken apart for the last time in our house today. We're excited that it will be used again soon though. Our new niece or nephew due to arrive at Uncle David and Auntie Krista's house in two month's time will surely find it a cozy nest as well!