And So It Begins....

Every parents dreads the day when their toddler---no matter how old---climbs out of their crib. With Caleb, he was about 18-months old and I was downstairs when I heard the heart-breaking "thud" from his bedroom. (No injuries for him, however, so it was all okay.) Hannah, on the other hand, had never climbed out of her crib. Sure, we've seen her try and that lead to us putting up a crib tent for awhile. However, we took that down months ago because she's just plain old enough to understand that climbing out of her crib would not be a good thing to do. That said, you could imagine my surprise and panic yesterday when I heard that awful "thud" come from her room during nap-time. The "thud" was followed by her wailing which made me dash into her room as quick as my feet would allow. As it turned out, she was fine but shaken up. (I don't think kids realize how far the floor is from that top railing until they smack down on the carpet...) She was so shaken-up, in fact, that I was able to comfort her, then put her right back into her crib, knowing that she wouldn't try to climb out again.

Okay, so all of that is what prompted a "new phase" that we are entering: the "Big Girl Bed". Hannah is 27-months old, which is pretty old for some kids to be sleeping in a crib. We put Caleb in a "Big Boy Bed" right after his second birthday, mostly because we needed the crib for Hannah. So, why isn't Hannah in a big bed yet? Frankly, it's because we don't need the crib. There's no baby about to be born and Hannah seemed fine with her crib, so we just kept it at that. Plus, because she had never climbed out, it was all fine and dandy. Until her fall yesterday, that is. So, last night, before bed, Chris had the brilliant idea to take the front of Hannah's crib off. You may think this sounds weird, but that's actually something that her crib can do: turn into a toddler-sized day bed. We never needed to use it like that before and I am so thankful we got this kind of crib, now realizing that we don't have to rush out and get another bed for her. (Whew!) Anyhoo, long story long, as usual, this is what we ended up with:


She was a little freaked out when I left her room so she could sleep and cried out "Mommy Mommy!" until I explained that this bed is the same bed as her crib, just without the front. She seemed content with that and felt right asleep. The real test was when we heard another "thud" at 5am....which, of course, was Hannah falling OUT of bed and not realizing what was going on in her half-awake state. All turned out well, though, and I'm interested to see how the next few nights/naps go with her. I also want to mention that the reason why I titled this "And So It Begins" is because this will inevitably be the beginning of Hannah NOT taking afternoon naps (big sigh from me) and the oh-so-fantastic getting out of bed several times an evening. Wish us luck!!!