Its A Big Night

It's a HUGE night at our house.  Pray for us. (Please.)

Wee One is sleeping in her big girl bed.

So I wrote all this drivel last week with the intent of posting:

So, I have this bed for my kid (seen also here, here, here (video), and here). I bought it used for $75 at a consignment sale (so imagine how pissed I was to find out that KMart originally sold it for $62.40...). But, I digress. I bought it used, already assembled, nothing else with it. I've located the instruction manual online and saved the pdf.



Yes, it's been recalled. I KNOW THIS. It's a drop side, they're all illegal now. Mine seems fine, I've been paying attention, my kid doesn't get her head stuck, blah blah blah.

The time has come to make it into a toddler bed. Meaning, I need more parts. Like, the daybed/toddler bed rail, and the four special bolts that will hold it in place.



So, I emailed the company. They wrote me back and said the crib has been recalled, and to go to their recall page or call the company. The recall page wants to send me the repair kit for the drop side. I don't want to repair the drop side. I want to take it off and make the bed into a toddler bed. So I called the company. Who directed me to the website to obtain the repair kit. I don't want to repair the drop side, I want to take it off and make the bed into a toddler bed. I have to order the repair kit first. And then call Babies R Us, she thinks, for the rails.



So, I called Babies R Us. They don't have one for that brand, but they have a generic one. That might work? Who knows. But they'll sell it to me for ... wait for it ... $64.99.



Yikes.


Meanwhile, I have a toddler bed - tiny, pink, plastic and metal thing, that I picked up at the Goodwill for ... wait for it ... five bucks. Sitting in my basement.



I'm so afraid about the toddler bed transition. When I first posted about considering it for December, I got so many horror stories from people that read my post and told me about how it took weeks or months for their kid to get used to it. One (not very helpful) friend told me that the transition to toddler bed for her son began YEARS of woes that they haven't fully gotten resolved. (I will not be laying IN the bed with her, so I'm thinking we might not have that situation to contend with, but still.)

So what do I do when I experience intense anxiety? I drink plan.

So the last couple of nights, when I've woken up either in the middle of the night or early in the morning, I've laid there in the dark and thought about that precious little girl (or abhorrent "no" monster, whichever you prefer) sleeping in her bed. And thought, and thought, and thought. If I just convert that bed to a toddler bed, she'll still have the security of three sides of the bed, which might help her continue to sleep well, and minimize the transition.   Which I now know will cost me $64.99 to do.



Or, I could go ahead and put the entire crib in the basement for the next baby/time that I can bring myself to part with it, and pull out the toddler bed. It's pink, it's sweet, it fits the same size mattress. I'm worried about the lack of sides. Not about her falling out, I'll put it against the wall and probably use mesh rail. I just think if she's slept in this high-sided cozy bed for 18 months now, is she going to be able to sleep in something radically different?

 Okay mamas, bring on the advice: drop the dough to convert the crib to a toddler bed? Or go with the cheap pink plastic thing I already have? I'm really leaning toward converting the crib as a first step, then once we adjust to her new-found freedom we can go all the way to a big girl bed. Or maybe it won't matter as much as I think it will. It's just going to be hard to pay 65 bucks for a piece of wood to do it. (Which, BTW, won't match the white crib, but can be painted. Yay.)


Also, advice on the transition. I'm ordering her bedding online (why can you only use Target.com gift cards online?), so even though I've heard "shop with her and let her pick out her bedding", um, no. Yes, when she's older. Not when I'm still a big control freak trying to save money.\
When I was little there was a "two times" rule. You could get out of bed to ask for something two times, and that was it. I don't know what the consequences were. I was too much of a rule-follower to find out. Then one night the kid of someone we knew was over while the parents were out. It was bedtime. I went to bed in my bed upstairs, and she went to bed in my parents bed. Well, she got up THREE times, and she didn't get in trouble for it. (Yes, I am a "J" on the Myers-Briggs, why do you ask?) Anyway, that's just a little tidbit of a memory about the "two times" rule. Which is about to get instituted at my house when we do this "transition".

 Any other good tidbits?


Thanks for letting me ramble.............

Then in the process of writing, made my own decision.

I bought this bedding.  Then I read all the online reviews by the pissed off parents complaining about the extra sheet set, which was just a fitted sheet and a pillowcase (no flat/top sheet), so I bought a second set in purple to get the whole extra sheet set.  It was only $25 on sale, and with potty training coming up, you know I'm going to be washing this shit alot, so it was worth it for the extra set.

So yesterday, I brought the bed upstairs to introduce her.

Today when she got up, she wanted her big girl bed, so again I put the crib matress down for her to watch some cartoons on while I showered for church

Then tonight, the bedtime routine included the Big Girl Bed.

And so far, I haven't heard a peep.  Cross your fingers and toes, peeps, she's a big girl now!!!!

The Handwashing Flats Challenge (Edited)

Have you heard about this?  The environmental lover in me has been dying to do this - buy a bunch of flats and hang them to dry to save money and energy.  Now here's some motivation.
 
It's only one week (May 23-30).  You can buy flats cheap (and use them for household rags if it doesn't work for you afterward).  Do it!!!  You can still use modern covers.  You can still use your normal nighttime routine if flats don't work for you for that aspect.  It's a great project.
 
I'm a little miffed that you can only join the linky if you're not in daycare.  My daycare requires a one-piece diaper, so we use pockets for daycare.  I can completely understand not participating in the survey - you want a certain population of subjects when doing any kind of research.  I get that.  But to eliminate a group of people from the conversation because they are not in the circumstances to do it full time?  Do you think all your low income families that are the target of your project are stay-at-home moms?  You're letting people use whatever they want for nighttime, but you're not letting mamas join the linky if they don't use the flats all day every day?
 
But I'm not annoyed enough to not participate and tell everyone who will read about it.  And I encourage everyone to give it a shot.  This is the one kind of cloth diaper I haven't tried, and I'm excited about it!

Happy Second Birthday Party!

The party was a huge success.  I don't think I mentioned it last year, but there was some ... issues with ordering the cake.  This year, I was determined to order the cake myself.  I waited a little longer than I should have, but when I went in to order it, we came up with an awesome design.  Which turned into an awesome cake.  Which set the tone for an awesome party!

  

OMG!  The cake!!!!!



Boots!!!!!!!!!!

Wonderful weather!

Besties are the best!!!!!

 So I was pulling casseroles out of the oven, and my mom asked me to come out front.  We'd had a conversation about having The Bubble Truck come, which I thought wasn't going to work out.  And then he pulled into the driveway!!!

The BUBBLE TRUCK!

The big kids were getting into it!

Bubbles!

More bubbles!

A book about the BUBBLE TRUCK.  Signed by Sonny!  How great is that???

She got the section with Boots!

Eating the cake.

Making our own bubbles after the bubble truck left.

One tired girl!

What an awesome party.  Thank you to everyone who came to help us celebrate! 

Two Years Ago

Two years ago right now I was angry.  I was crying myself to sleep, great big alligator tears of anger.  I had prepared and readied and hoped.  But not for this.  It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Every book I'd read about preparing for labor had a section on surgical deliveries.  Most were an afterthought - after pages and pages of information about stages of labor, timing contractions, back labor and pushing, there would be a paragraph or two about what happens if you have a C-section.  I didn't read them. 

I thought by reading those paragraphs, I would be preparing for that eventuality, and I didn't want to have a C-section.  No sir, not me.  I wasn't planning to go "natural", but I was at least planning to have a "normal" delivery.

Planning.

I went to Big Lots and bought cheap panties that were three sizes too big so if they got soiled after birth I could just throw them away.  I bought a new robe and slippers and a notebook for a journal, and packed up a bag with my essentials.

Planning.

I had been ordered on bedrest, but I was planning to at least get the house cleaned up over spring break week before propping my feet up to let the bun finish baking in the oven.

Planning.

Then the plans changed.  Hospitalized.  Breech.  No induction.  Surgery on Friday, April 3.

Two years ago tonight I was angry.  I was crying myself to sleep, great big alligator tears of anger. I had prepared and readied and hoped. But not for this. It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Tonight I am planning.  A party to celebrate what happened two years ago tomorrow.  Because even thought it didn't happen the way I planned, a tiny little girl came into my life and changed it forever.  Over the last two years I have learned that it's not all about me, I can want what I want but that doesn't mean it happens that way, and that life truly is what happens while you are making other plans.
 
Planning.
 
The party of the century.  To celebrate the sweetest, most precious girl in the whole world.  The only people I know for sure are coming are my parents, my godmother, a close friend, two colleagues, and the waiter from our favorite Mexican restaurant.  There will be somewhere between 5 and 100 people in my house tomorrow to celebrate my daughter's birthday. 
 
I should know it's not going to be exactly the way I plan.
 
I also know that however it turns out, it will be perfectly fine.
 
The last two years have already taught me that.