The Case of Big Girl Bed

We knew this day was coming. We knew we would be moving Addison to a big girl bed eventually. She can't stay in the crib forever but we had no plans to move her over for awhile yet. Well, that was until she decided to flip herself out of the crib, landing hard on her back and knocking the wind out of herself.

Here's the whole story...

Since we got home again from Iowa after Thanksgiving, we struggled getting Addison down to bed. For nap time she went down without a problem but when bedtime came around it was nothing but screaming. She sounded terrified but for no reason we could figure out. Except that for the last few days we were sleeping in the room with her so she just didn't want to be left alone. We didn't want to start playing that game so we went back to crying it out after months of not having to do it. 

However that plan failed miserably when less than a week ago, she got her weight ahead of her flipped head over feet to the ground. All I heard was a loud thump while Rob reacted immediately. She struggled to breathe at first since the wind was knocked out of herself. We finally got her back into her crib after we knew she was okay when Rob laying on the floor to keep her calm for a hour or two. 

The next night we were in the same boat. More screaming. More leaning over the crib. Although she was scared to fall again she knew it would keep us in the room and that was exactly what she wanted. So we made the decision to take the side down and make her crib a toddler bed. 

We no longer feared her falling out of the crib but she still wasn't happy. She was still screaming and we couldn't get her calmed down enough to get to relax. So finally I decide to get a pillow. A simple pillow. And suddenly she was quiet. That was it. She wanted a pillow. 

We had to tuck her back in a couple of times using whatever blankets we could find since we were not prepared for a toddler bed. She ended up using the blanket that my grandpa had given to her. The first night she stayed put. She woke up a couple times disoriented but we got her back to bed no problems. She helped herself to some other blankets and books during the night but it was a peaceful and quiet first night of sleep. 

The first nap time in the toddler bed was anything but successful. The first time she got up she came running down the hall with books in hand. I turned her around and got her back to bed. I let her keep the books tucked in by her pillow but she stayed put. Until about 15 minutes later when she started whining which I heard over the monitor. I go put her back to bed. This time she had tried to escape her room but had closed her door and trapped herself instead. I got her back to bed again. 

I didn't hear from her again until she woke up crying from a bad dream. She settled and stayed put. I have no idea if she slept. If she just kept getting up and getting a new book and laying back down or what she did. But she stayed in her room, quiet, for the remainder of nap time. 

We're still adjusting to the big girl bed. Nap times are definitely harder than bedtimes. All her books have had to be moved from her room due to finding every single book she had on her bookshelf all over her bed during nap time. It'll take time but we'll get adjusted.

I just have a hard time believing she's such a big girl in a big girl bed. Where did my little baby go?