Tales from the Toddler bed...

This was taken a couple weekends back - on that super duper hot weekend in August. 90-100 degrees... hence the reason she's got nothing but a diaper on... but she refuses to fall asleep without "banket" on her... Anyways - I realized after the fact that this is the last picture of her sleeping in her crib. (not that you can even tell she's in the crib though!)

I would have loved to keep her in the crib longer - but my growing belly had other plans. When it got to the point where I was squishing my belly putting her into the crib at night and then getting cramps - that's when we decided to make the move. It was either that, or have daddy do all nighttime duty - and she would SO not be okay with that!

The crib we got does not have a drop side, so I was reaching over it each time to lie her down in it. Never was a problem until the belly. Would I buy a non drop side again or recommend it? Absolutely! This crib has been so sturdy we love it! Did I want to go buy another crib or a toddler bed? NO way! Glad we got a convertible bed too :) All we had to do was take one side off and turn it into the "day bed" but toddler sized.

Our first night was last Friday. We've survived a week so far, but let me tell you how the first few nights went:
Friday:

7pm: Oh, she's getting fussy - let's switch her crib to the toddler bed and give her an early bedtime.

8pm: rocking her to sleep - she took her milk... and then vomited all over me... and Gigi (reference picture above, Gigi is the giraffe). So, outfit change for me, outfit change for her, Gigi goes on vacation to the washing machine.

8:30ish: She wants both her mommy and daddy by her - we go lie down in our bed with her inbetween us. She drifts off, but then starts BEGGING for her "juice" (milk). I give her some. In hindsight, NOT a good idea. She got all calmed down and then rolled over to face me... started whining "mommy mommy mommy"... I moved out of the way just in time - but she needed a bath, a new outfit, her hair washed, we needed new sheets on the bed... and this time, Bunny didn't make it out alive. (Reference picture above for cute little bunny rabbit). Bunny is now on vacation in the washing machine with Gigi.

10:30pm: After her bath, she wouldn't let me lay her down - so we both fell asleep in the recliner in the living room. Woke up covered in sweat at 10:30 and I went to put her in her bed and Rich and I finally crawled into bed... hoping for a quiet rest of the night. Did I mention we decided to do this while I was on call? During the puke incidents I think I had 4 phone calls I had to deal with... ugh!

11:30pm: She's crying. She fell out of bed. Soft landing on pillows though. Put her back in and she went to sleep a short while later.

1:30am: She's crying. Fell out again. Went back in fairly easily.

2:30am: Guess what - fell out again. This time, begging for bunny and gigi... I gave up and brought her into bed with us and we all slept until 6:30am. Best 4 hours of sleep in a long time!

Saturday:
She took a 45 minute snooze on the way home from getting groceries (and rescuing daddy since his truck died and had to call AAA to get it towed) - anyways - we got home and Richie put a 3/4 length bed rail on the bed. I was surpised the toddler bed didn't have a bedrail, but we didn't really think it'd be that big of a problem Friday night... we were wrong. So, he put a bedrail on and left about a foot or so of space at the foot of the bed where she can crawl in and out, she can't fall out that small of a hole, right!?!

Saturday afternoon she refused to take a nap in her bed. Guess the 45 minutes was enough for her.

She fell asleep in my arms Saturday night so that made it easy to get her into bed that night. ... slept fine until 1:30am... fell out! You've got to be kidding me! This time, I found a thick big book and shoved that in the 1 foot space trying to block the exit. Set up a row of big stuffed animals by the book so it was a bit more of a barrier. Thankfully, that did prevent any further falls (till this point anyways!)

1:30-3am - I was trying to get her to fall asleep in the bed, but she was just crying everytime I'd leave the room. I'd go back in and hum her to sleep nearly falling asleep myself, but being that I wasn't comfortable - didn't want to fall asleep there. A couple times I got up to leave the room to use the bathroom and she crawled out of bed and came after me. All I said to her was, "where are you supposed to be?" and she turned right around and ran (screaming) back into her room. It was not a fun night. Finally at 3am, I called for Richie and asked him to sit with her so I could go back to bed. She was sound asleep in the next 20 minutes and he was back in bed soon too.

Sunday:
She fell asleep in my arms for her nap and I laid her in the bed - she stayed for 1 hour and then was up - refusing to sleep in it again. Richie brought her in with me and she napped with me for another hour.

Sunday night:
I believe she was up once for a drink of milk and otherwise no incidents.

Each night this week has been about the same. I've let her just "cry it out" at bedtime and again in the middle of the night when she's waking up but seriously it's all of 2 minutes of fussing and she's sound asleep again.

I just laid her down for her nap this afternoon and we'll see how it goes. Before the change from crib to toddler bed, her weekend naps were lasting 2-3 hours consistently. I certainly hope she goes more than an hour today!