Auggie and the Crib-to-Toddler-bed Transition

If you noticed my previous post showing a video of Auggie climbing out of his crib, you may have guessed that it was time for The Big Boy Bed Transition. Now stop reading and listen carefully - you'll hear me screaming in terror all the way from New Mexico....

Okay, it hasn't been that bad. In fact, Auggie is upstairs napping in his bed, hopefully in his bed, as I write this post. (Because frankly, folks, the only time I have to update my blog is during nap time.)

This transition was a scary one for me. Auggie is our oldest and in general I thoroughly research strategies regarding transitions/decisions to make sure we're doing the right thing with him. I had actually been thanking the good Lord that Auggie hadn't yet figured out how to climb out of his crib, because he's certainly been tall enough to do it since the moment we transitioned him into that crib in April 2010. Anyway, I was completely unprepared for this moment. No research done–not even a Google search. For the next two days we had him sleep in his crib as-is, but then he climbed out again unprovoked, and that meant it was time for The Big Boy Bed Transition. We stepped very blindly into the world of what-happens-after-your-kid-gets-out-of-the-crib.

On Monday morning while a delighted Auggie watched, I whipped out some tools, removed the crib's side-rail, and replaced it with the toddler-bed rail. And there was no going back. Next up: research. Thankfully, I have great friends on Facebook. I asked, and they answered.

The general consensus from all of my friends was that this transition would be very exciting for Auggie early on, but the glitter and jazz would fade quickly leaving a little boy who knows how to sleep in his big boy bed. And that's pretty much what happened. I cleaned the majority of his toys out of his room, I rigged the sliding closet doors so that Auggie couldn't open them, I removed the decorations from the top of his dresser, and I found a nice tall baby gate to put in front of his door. Voila! No escaping, and nothing all that exciting to do except sleep.

Monday's nap time was a hurricane of excitement. The Auggiemeister didn't sleep, and instead rolled up his area rug a few times, jumped on his bed, moved pillows off the twin bed, read (and tore apart) some books, played with the curtains, and on and on. On Monday night Auggie wouldn't stay in bed when I put him to bed and instead played excitedly in his room and asked to go potty several times. My friends recommended letting Auggie know that after bedtime Mama and Dada wouldn't talk to him, but would only put him back to bed. We weren't mad, but it was simply bedtime. Point being: don't interact much, simply put your kid back to bed. That was definitely key, and made staying up less fun. ... Later that night I found Auggie sound asleep on the floor. :)

But then, just as everyone said, the excitement faded, and now he naps. And sleeps at bedtime. I've only found him asleep on the floor twice, the carpet rolling has finally lost its thrill, and only one other book cover fell victim to tearing. This transition was much less scary than I expected, and perhaps even easy? I'll need to read this post when the time comes for Eland.