Big boy bed shenanigans

I was in absolutely no rush to scoop my "baby" out of his crib and plop him in a big boy bed. We knew it was coming sometime in the next few months, but I was hoping to drag it out as long as possible. There is a lot to be said for total confinement! He has been in his big boy room for a month or two now, but we moved the crib into the room as well.

One day last week I listened to him on the baby monitor during naptime, and I could tell he didn't sleep a wink (first time ever!). I gave him a long time to settle down and finally gave up. When I went upstairs to get him out of his crib, he greeted me at the door with a huge, proud grin on his face. Ugggggghhhhhh. I was so not ready to move him, so we kind of tried to ignore it that night. It worked because he was exhausted from not taking a nap. That was his last time to sleep in the crib.

The next day was a Saturday, and Mikey tried to put him down for his nap. Mikey watched him climb out of the crib over and over and over again. Looks like someone made the big boy bed decision for me! So we moved some furniture around in the interest of his safety and tried to get him to go to sleep on the bed. He showed no interest in even getting on the bed, much less sleeping on it, so I brought out the Mother's Day Out nap mat. Worked like a charm!

That night, we put him in his bed without the bed rail because he seemed to see the bed rail as a jungle gym. We put pillows down next to the bed (which is a twin and is on box springs) in case he fell. I hardly slept a wink because I was so worried about what was going on in there. That morning when I went to wake him up, I ran into a bit of a barrier when I opened the door. It was his head. He had fallen out of the bed in the middle of the night, but it obviously didn't phase him a bit!

Every day since has been an adventure. I think we are hitting our stride now (a week later). As I type, I am watching him on a video monitor. He is sleeping in his big boy bed on his nap mat, with the rail up. He was so tired tonight that he didn't do his usual hour-long calisthenics routine before settling down.

The pictures below are from naptime a couple of days ago. It took him forever to go to sleep, and I couldn't see him in there because he kept knocking the camera down. I was mighty surprised to find him half under the bed, sleeping on the pillows that are there to keep him from hurting himself. Hey - whatever works, buddy!