1. The conversion kit to a full wasn't available in the color I needed (currently out of stock).
2. The more I thought about it, I didn't really want a full bed in his room just because it would take up too much space. The way the room is configured, he'd hardly have any play area with a bigger bed.
3. I was set on getting a twin (and we still will here pretty soon), but the more I started looking, the more expensive it became. At first I was just thinking about a decent wooden bed, then I remembered we had to get a mattress set, then I realized we'd need new bedding, and then the safety rail. Plus, I didn't really think it was fair to us that our kiddo would practically get a whole new room and ours still looks like crap without ANY real furniture... just kidding. That really wasn't a reason, but I did find it funny that I was more than happy to spend the money on Carson, but have yet to spend any money on furniture for our room. Anyways, I digress... Turns out there is a Jenny Lind bed at the farm that is no longer being used. We got the okay from the other aunts to take it. I'm ridiculously sentimental, so I LOVE that his first bed will be from the farm. I may need to repaint it, but that shouldn't be too difficult. We'll get it in a month or so and just have it ready when we decide to move him to a real bed.
4. Carson really hasn't had any experience sleeping in a real bed. I can probably count on one hand the number of times he's slept with us.
5. He loves his crib and has never tried to get out. He piles all his stuffed animals in there with him and it's his little safe place. I don't think his body is actually on the mattress because he has so many animals/characters in there with him.
6. We "paid" for the toddler rail when we bought the 4-1 crib, so might as well use it.
7. Lastly, I just figured it might be an easier transition for him (and the rest of us) if he was still in his crib. It's a familiar place. He knows it's for sleeping and nothing major has changed other than he can get in himself, which I think he's wanted to do for a while.
He's had two nights in it so far. I do NOT want to jinx anything, so I won't be jumping up and down anytime soon or bragging about how well he's doing, but I'll just say that so far, he seems to really be enjoying it. We haven't had to go put him back in yet or anything. He's usually pretty good about going to bed, so it seems that so far, he doesn't really view this bed any differently, other than he has the freedom to put all his animals in and out. The first night (Friday), we had gone to Target after school and I let him pick out a new stuffed animal. He picked the Thomas and Percy mini Pillow Pals. Yes, we ended up with both, not one. He LOVES them, and they seem to "complete" his stuffed animal/character collection (at least for now!). He's got all his doggies (multiple), Snuggles (his bear), Mickey times 2, Goofy, Duck (i.e. Donald), his Jesus Loves Me bunny rabbit, Sock Monkey from "Dove", and now Thomas and Percy. He is VERY particular about which ones he wants with him. OH, and his blanket....he still HAS to have his green blanket!
Terrible pic, but you can see his excitement about his "big bed." He was so cute when I brought him in there the first time to show him his big boy bed. His eyes just lit up. He crawled in and said, "Mommy get in." So yes, I have managed (or 1/2 of me) to crawl in there with him every day for a little while. He loves to snuggle with me!
Not only do all the animals go in, but so does his chair (it came out before bedtime).
Busted!
Proud of himself
We've had quite a bit of entertainment watching him on the monitor. The first night he slept in there, about half of his animals were on the floor next to him when I left the room. In the morning, they were all in there. I guess he got out of bed in the middle of the night, put them in the bed with him, then went back to sleep. So, the next night, we watched him for a while, and sure enough, that's what he did. I've also been surprised that in the morning, he's waited for us to get out of bed. The first day, he jumped for a little while, but still didn't climb out. This morning, he just kept rolling around. I sure hope he keeps this up. I'm not ashamed to admit that he did have a little Benadryl both nights before bed... it was legit though... his nose has been running like crazy! This kid's got some allergy issues!
I had to do a little reconfiguring too because I noticed he was trying to lean over the toddler rail to reach stuff on top of a smaller dresser. He went for it and I heard him screaming. When I came in, it looked like he was holding on for dear life over the side of a cliff. The cliff being that dresser. He had the sock monkey in hand and was holding on to the top of the dresser with his palms, body over the side edge, and toes digging into the side of the dresser to try to stay on. Silly boy. He only had about 6 inches to "fall", but I think it was enough to scare him a little and enough more me to move some furniture around.
More to come.... We'll see how his first full week goes!
We, too, are trying to figure out how to make the transition. Grady does SUPER in his crib and, like Carson, has so many animals in there it's hysterical. It really is like his little domain. I'm afraid to move him on my terms, but I know we need to transition him soon given that we have so much travel coming up and he's now too big/smart for the travel crib... decisions, decisions.
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