the big boy bed

tuesday, ben finally climbed out of his crib. saturday, we put the big boy bed into his room. we kept the crib in the room thinking that he'd do naps in the crib, bedtimes in the bed. ben was so unbelievably excited that he spent most of the morning pretending to sleep in the bed. he moved all his soothers and his Curious George and his baby over to the new bed. he climbed in and out so many times. at lunch, we had a big discussion about staying in bed at bedtime and not getting out...a discussion in that i told him over and over that he needed to stay in bed and ben nodding.

naptime rolls around and i asked him if he wanted to sleep in the bed or in his crib. "big boy bed!", he shouted. okay! so he climbed in, we had our nap time routine, and then i set his clock (and by clock, i mean an app on the ipod that looks like a moon and then when it becomes the time that you set it for, it turns into a sun). i reminded him that he couldn't get out of bed until he saw the sun and then he could get out and come find mommy.

i spent many minutes peeking through the crack in the door watching what he was doing in that big boy bed. he was mostly moving around his pillow, his stuffies, and his soothers. finally, i went in and took the pillow away, saying that he probably doesn't need it because it's too big. (do kids need pillows at all? the day before he was sleeping with none in the crib, right?) after about 10 more minutes, asleep. he didn't get out of bed once! when he woke up, he checked the ipod, saw the sun, and came running at top speed out of his room. "awake, mommy!" i have never seen a prouder little boy than this. he stood there with his arms crossed, smiling the biggest smile. oh, it was sweet.

bed time rolled around and we did the bedtime routine, got ben into the big boy bed, and i left him in there in the dark. i just could not believe he wasn't scared to be alone in that big bed in the dark but no. he never called for me once. never got out of bed once. in fact, i went in after 10 minutes or so just to double check that he didn't want to sleep in the crib. "are you SURE you don't want to sleep in the crib, ben?" "no! big boy bed!" he slept until the sun came out on the ipod and for the first time in 2 years, 7 months, and 18 days, ben came into out room and woke us up in the morning! he was so happy to have slept all night in his bed. it was pretty fun.

so today's naptime was uneventful as was bedtime. my mom said to me, "i wonder how long before he figures out that he can get out of bed and come out here?" the thought had honestly never occurred to me. i thought we had won the jackpot on easiest transition to big bed ever...but i guess we won't know for sure for awhile. but for now? i'm pretty excited for that little boy.