His Own Bed

Ace is just a little over sixteen months old and is such a big boy in many ways - we decided it was time to transition him into his own 'big boy' bed. Yes, for most of the last sixteen months Ace has slept exclusively in our bed. Yes, we are co-sleepers. Gasp! Yes, Ace since he was born has slept between Loving Husband and I. Gasp! There had been a few attempts to transition him to his crib, and before I went to California in October he had been sleeping the first stint in his crib. However, in California it was so much easier for him to sleep in the same bed I was in - and thus the habit of crib first, bed second was lost upon our return to the NW. We had gotten past the point of worrying of him falling out of bed because he was now tall enough to just climb out of it. Which is why we decided that transforming his crib into a bed wouldn't be that a) traumatic and b) dangerous for someone his age.

And so yesterday was the day! He helped do the construction and after the framing was all in place he and his dad left the room and I brought out his new sheet set and made his bed look all nice.


He was very excited about his new sheet set. He also received a new alien stuffed toy to slumber with him that he enjoyed hugging and chewing on the antenna. Then it was time to get down to business and go to sleep. For the most part he went to sleep with about the same amount of sweat and tears as usual - which I suppose for a new sleeping arrangement is not a bad thing.

The book I have read: The No-Cry Sleep Solution suggests that we a) make it exciting with new sheets, etc.. and b) that it be a transitional thing - and while I didn't need a book to tell me that - it was nice that this book reinforced my original instincts on how to transition him. So that's what we did! We obtained the Toy Story sheets (a current favorite and goes well with his preexisting bright green walls) and we put him to sleep in his new bed. He awoke almost every hour until 1am when we finally brought him to our bed. So although he awoke often and joined us in our bed after only a few hours - I feel we are on the road to success.