After Monkey's second birthday we decided it was about time to get her into a big girl bed. Surprisingly she never really tried to climb out of her crib till right before we switched. We figured it would be best to switch before we have a bruised head, or broken arm.
We got one of the bunk beds from Kyle's parents place and re-stained it, bought a new mattress and went shopping for sheets/blankets. All three of us went shopping, but Monkey and hubby picked it all out. They decided to go with the "Littlest Pet Shop" theme blanket set, but mostly because they have kitties on them. She was so excited to play on her new big girl bed when we got home and made the bed. She was jumping and running all over her new bed, which is why I chose to add the guard rail up.
Now there were a few reasons we chose to put her in the big bed when we did, the most obvious was that she was just growing out of the crib, but one of the reasons was because she started putting up a huge fight at night when going to bed. Now Monkey has always been a good sleeper (once she got off the tit anyways). We have always had a strict bedtime, and fighting about it was unacceptable. However lately bedtime was getting to be no fun. She would run away from me when I brought out the PJ's, hide to avoid getting her night time diaper on, and kick and scream the entire way up the stairs. I would obviously always win, since she always ended up going to sleep, alone, and in her own bed; but it was becoming a very stressful nightly ritual that I needed to get rid of.
So I was shock when we setup the new bed and she was all the sudden excited to go to bed on her own. With no screaming, kicking, or bruised shins (mine, not hers). It was like a miracle. And every night she would go up stairs, I was just waiting for the day she would learn that once the lights went out she could still get out of bed, which actually took several weeks.
So then it started. She realized there was no one holding her down forcing her to stay in bed. She started to play. And Play. And Play. Now I always left her room pretty boring, and mainly for this reason. I didn't want this room to be a play room, it was for resting only. And actually, from what I have read and heard from other people, she really didn't stay up playing for very long. Some kids can stay up till 3/4 in the morning just playing in their room the first few weeks after switching from crib to bed. That wasn't her, I wouldn't let it. We just had to keep going up there ever half hour or so and remind her it was bed time and that she had to go to sleep.
Well one night when I checked on Monkey, I opened up her bedroom door and there she was face first in the middle of the floor sleeping. We aren't sure if she was in the middle of playing and zonked out? or couldn't figure out how to get back into bed on her own (because most of the time we were the one's actually putting her in her bed). I thought it was funny, but that's what kids do I guess right? Well the very next day Kyle went upstairs to check on Monkey and I heard him laughing at the top of the steps. I went up to see what the big deal was and he was standing in front of her door. He couldn't open the door. Our Monkey was sleeping on the floor right behind the door so we couldn't open it. I almost fell down the stairs laughing. Well I ended up having to be the bad guy. So here I am, pushing the door open while sliding Monkey across the floor just to get into room to put her into bed.
This was not the end. So the next day when I went up to check, she was sleeping her her closet. I thought at first she had just tipped over after playing with her dolls in the closet, but she ended up there the next night and the next; in which ever night I would pick her up and move her back into her bed. There was a few times where she woke up after me moving her and she got mad and made me put her back in her closet. After that, I knew there must be something she liked in her closet more than her bed. I know it wasn't that comfy floor of hers, by golly that is the hardest carpet I have ever knelt on (no comments please). Maybe it was more confined and she felt safer in the closet? I will never know. I tried figuring out whether I should put her crib mattress in the closet, which would probably be a perfect fit, lay some blankets down, so when she goes in there it's at least somewhat soft, or pull everything out of there and make it as uncomfortable as possible? I decided not to make it too comfy in there, because I didn't want to encourage this behavior, even though right now it seems pretty harmless. Could you imagine sleep-overs in a few years if this habit wasn't broken? I can just hear that conversation with the other parent? After a few days I did end up laying a few blankets down on the floor of the closet (I'm not that mean of a mommy). But every night when we went up to bed I would ask her to go lay in her big girl bed. I never really gave her the OK to sleep in her closet, except for those few desperate times where I bargained with her so she would go to sleep, she was never really told she couldn't sleep in there.
So after a few weeks of my Monkey sleeping in her closet (or at least starting her night in there), Kyle came home from a weekend of hunting and we decided to tell her that he would be very proud of her if she could sleep all night in her big girl bed. That big girls don't sleep in closets. That very night she agreed to go to sleep in her big bed, and every night after that, except for an exception or two when she woke up in the middle of the night and climbed down and into her closet. I was able to remove the blankets from the floor in there and move on. So instead of having Monster's in my closet, I had Monkey's.
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| She was so excited for her new big girl bed! |
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| First night her her own bed. Sleeping like a toddler (sorry, couldn't turn the picture) |
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| Wake up sleepy head. First Morning waking up in her new bed. |
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| Not sure if she's a morning person? |
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