"Big Kid" bed!!

Tonight we turned Adalyn's crib into a toddler bed! She was so excited to be in a "big kid" bed. We purposefully left her in her crib this long for a reason. Right before I had Landon Adam and I agreed that we were in absolutely no rush to transform her bed into a toddler bed. When I had Landon she was 22 months old and was very curious about a new baby being in the house. I knew better than to even think about giving her the freedom to get out of her bed in the middle of the night when we knew he would be up every 3 hours to nurse. I was preparing myself to be up with one kid, definitely not 2.So my thinking was she was trapped so she wouldn't be able to get out. She had never tried to climb out of it so again, no rush to change it. I had Landon and a few months went by. She was getting a little older and I was still very tired from Landon's newborn stage and playing with a toddler during the day that again I did not want to mess a good thing up. (her staying in bed and sleeping wonderfully.) We had Landon in our room in his pack n play for 12 weeks before we moved him to his room. Thankfully our room is on the opposite end of the house so she couldn't hear Landon during the night. When he turned 12 weeks, I was MORE than ready to kick him out and put him in his crib. He still wasn't sleeping consecutively through the night but i wasn't having to feed him anymore. Their bedrooms are side by side and us knowing he was still going to get up off and on (some nights yes, some nights no) during the night made our decision to still keep her in the crib just as easy as it was months ago. Surprisingly, she never heard him during those few months of him learning to sleep well and waking up because he broke out of his swaddle, or didn't know how to find his pacifier, etc. After he was 4 months old, he became an excellent sleeper. Once he was sleeping through the night consecutively, we started discussing ordering the side rail to transform her bed. Then one night back in April, I put Adalyn to bed and she started crying for me as soon as I closed the door. I walked into our bedroom and the next thing I knew, she was standing there. Uhhh how in the world did you get in here?! Yep, she had finally climbed out of her crib. I always knew the day would come, I was just shocked it happened that night. I took her back to her bed and the crying continued. Oh it was awful. I ended up having to rock her to sleep then I was able to lay her down. We have always been able to lay her down awake and she goes to sleep herself. The next night rolls around and the same crying situation occurred. This time we were frustrated. Had to rock her again and then layed her down. The 3rd night we had had enough. She had never acted like this before when it came to going to sleep and it was just plain ridiculous. She kept climbing in and out of her crib and walking into the living room. She did this for 3 nights until we rocked her in her room and put her to sleep. That 3rd night, she got in trouble, we had a huge talk, and we put an end to it. She hasn't done it again. That was back early April. After that, we decided it was time to order her bed rail. It was a special order and took 12 weeks to get it but that was fine with us. We had no more issues after that last night. The rail came in and it has been sitting in our garage for weeks. When she would wake up in the mornings she would sing, "Mommy Daddy I readdddyyyyy!" We heard her over the monitor and one of us would go and get her. She absolutely knew how serious we were about not climbing out of her crib. Well, this week, she has been climbing out when she wakes up in the morning. I was nursing Landon at about 6:15 this morning and I hear her door open. She walked down the hall with the cutest grin on her face while she was waving at me. I couldn't help but laugh. So we knew tonight would be the night. She was so excited when Adam was putting it together. I was watching her tonight as she was playing on her "new" bed and she just looks so big to me. I can't believe she will be 3 in November. Enjoy your "big kid" bed Adalyn May!

All clean and ready for her 1st night in her big kid bed!