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!!!!