It’s official! Alethea in no longer in a crib and she’s no longer in a big girl bed. Nope, she’s been upgraded to a big BIG bed!
While it was nice to have a crib that converted to a toddler bed, we realized that Alethea’s time in it was limited by the fact that our second crib, the one that Lydia is using, is a drop-side model, also know as an “they no longer make them death trap”. So now that Lydia is on the verge of pulling herself up to standing, we figured it was time to pull the ol’ switcheroo and get Lydia into the safer crib and upgrade Alethea to a twin mattress.
Alethea’s transition from nursery to big girl room wasn’t completely smooth and her move from crib to toddler bed wasn’t exactly without bumps, so a few months ago Peter and I started strategizing how to make Alethea totally enthusiastic about her big, big bed’s arrival. So enthusiastic that she’d want to help take apart her toddler bed.
Plan Stage 1: Talk it up! We started telling her about the big, big bed, how it was going to be so big that it would go all the way from the wall to the bookcase and how she’d have room to sleep with all of her stuffed animals.
Plan Stage 2: Bribe away! Alethea adores Clifford, the big red dog, so I found a large plush Clifford dog at Kohl’s. Then we kept telling her that when she got a big big bed, her bed would be so big that Clifford would come sleep with her.
I’m happy to report that our two stage plan worked brilliantly. Alethea was begging to go bed shopping! And after we bought the bed, Alethea was so excited to sleep in it that when we offered her dinner, she said, “No thanks. Go to sleep!”
She did eventually come down for dinner, but right after she got her jammies on, she asked where Clifford was. I have no idea what she was expecting, but when Peter brought in the stuffed animal, she got a huge grin on her face, held out her arms, and said, “I want it!”
Of course, we couldn’t leave Lydia out, so she got a new plush too, Clifford’s best friend T-Bone!
Of all the sleeping transitions we’ve gone through, this was definitely the easiest. She was thrilled with the bed and her new Clifford (and only mildly bothered that she didn’t get a T-Bone too!)
And I am so glad that we finally got to make the bed with the gorgeous quilt that Alethea’s Gramma Denny made for her. It really brings her whole big girl room together so nicely!
A big girl, a big red dog and a big, BIG bed!
She is adorable with her big smile and dimples! Hope sleeping went well last night! Ava gets her big girl bed on Sunday, so I’m a little anxious about that. We pulled out the quilt she will use and put it on the floor and we pretended to nap on it and talked about how it was going to be on her big girl bed. She seemed pretty excited about that. I like the idea of a special toy to sleep with, but really she only ever wants Blanket and Peking in her crib. Each morning I tell her that it’s almost time to say goodbye to her crib. I’m encouraged to hear that Alethea transitioned well. I hope I have just as good news to post about next week :-)
As a side note: Ava has a dropside too. I sometimes get nervous about it, but I can’t figure out a way that she’d get hurt even if it dropped… I told Paul that we’ll be getting a new crib for the next baby, though, so I’m really sad to take this one down knowing that it will be garbage…. it’s dramatic, but it almost makes me sad enough for tears!
It looks great! I’m so glad the transition went well!
The quilt G’ma Denny made looks beautiful with the new bed!