Too Easy...

Reading to her babies while her quilt was finishing in the dryer. Girls are SO much different than boys!

Folks it has happened.
Immanuelle Marie is now a certified "Big Girl Bed" sleeper.

Like her big brothers before her, she has a younger sibling on the way and that means movin' on up to the Eastside whether she likes it or not. Or, mind you, whether I like it or not. (she's way tiny to be a big girl) Isaac and Isaiah were briefly both in cribs, but that was just because we had no clue Isaiah was going to arrive so quickly. As soon as it was possible, Isaac was promoted to big boy, Isaiah followed about 20 months later, and now Birdie-bye has her badge as well.

Our life sometimes seems so full of unsettledness, moving, changing, transitions, and the like. We wouldn't trade our lives for anything, but always "saying goodbye" to everything and everyone can wear on you.

So, with big-beds we have done our best to try and make this one small aspect of their young lives as easy as possible on us and them. We decided not to do toddler beds, but to go straight from crib to bed...
#1- because even though our crib can change into a toddler bed, there has always been another baby needing the crib in the crib form.
#2- because we didn't want to buy anymore furniture than necessary. (an extra crib or a toddler bed)
#3- because saying "bye" to something- even a bed- can be difficult sometimes. So we just decided to only make them say goodbye to their crib. Instead of a crib AND then to a toddler bed too.

More "sameness" for them for longer, less furniture buying and having to help them transition through change for us. Win-win!

Now that we're through with the explanations that you care not for... shall we move on to photos of our sweet Ellie Bellie in her big girl bed?

We shall.

Easiest

Transition

Ever.

HomeBird was so excited about her bed. Everyone "helped" as we assembled the mucho cheapo frame from IKEA. We found her reading to her babies that she had lined up all by herself like she'd done it a thousand times. At bedtime she showed no apprehension and seemed to need none of the brief explanation we gave her.

For this milestone Anthony and I have made sure we start on a night when we are both mentally prepared to sit outside the door and "train" said child to stay in bed. Isaac took 2 nights, Isaiah somewhere around the same. Not long, maybe a few tears, repeating the instructions, but overall not a big deal for us or them.

But Ellie Bird? The baby who speaks in 5 word sentences? The in-tune toddler who tells me when she has poo-poo in her diaper? That easy child?  She never even tried to get out. 

Doesn't surprise me.

Maybe she loved it too much to want to get out? Maybe she just knows the rules somehow already? I dunno, but the only "training" we had to do was one time catching her standing up on the bed and telling her to lay down.

Naps? You ask? Hasn't missed a beat!

One adorable note was that she seemed to think that she was supposed to lay on her back on her pillow, but after 45 minutes the first night, we went in and she still wasn't asleep.  She was perfectly still, quiet, and under her blanket, but awake.  So we told her to lay on her belly and after that she was a goner.

AND...to round out this ridiculously easy transition, she has slept about 30 minutes longer than usual the last two mornings!

Love. Her.

So not only has she seemed to tackle this milestone effortlessly, Mama now gets those snuggles with her after she's asleep, as logic would tell you, cribs and snuggles don't exactly mesh well.

Parenting is most definitely not always this easy. So we are super grateful this one has gone so well!

Sweet dreams baby girl!