Big Girl Beds

A few weeks ago we set up a toddler bed in the guest room, thinking we would try the girls out on it one at time during weekend naps. Sage tried it out first on Saturday and wasn't sold that a big girl bed was something she wanted. Lucy patiently let Sage go first, but eagerly jumped in for her turn for Sunday afternoon's nap. Later that evening as we prepared to tuck the girls into their cribs, Lucy definitively decided she was done with her crib forever and insisted she would sleep in the big girl bed in the guest room. 

This took Brian, me and Sage by surprise. Lucy would not sleep in her crib one more night with promises that we would convert it (take off the front rail) the next day. Sage was frantic that Lucy wasn't in her crib. Brian and I found ourselves blindsided by the idea of separating them for the night, even though all our theories of raising them as individuals supported the idea of giving them their own rooms when they wanted. But clearly Sage didn't want it. Lucy was just single-mindedly focused on sleeping in a big girl bed. 

So in the end, Lucy slept in the toddler bed in the guest room and Sage slept in the pack 'n play in there with her - even though Sage hates the pack n'play. The pnp was scooted up adjacent to the big girl bed, just like their cribs in the nursery. Brian and I scratched our heads at the empty nursery and turned to the Internet to figure out how to convert Lucy's crib before the next bedtime. 

On Monday night we took the front rail off Lucy's bed and she enthusiastically crawled in. So did Sage...who demanded, just as we were tucking them in, that she wanted a big girl bed, too. Of course you do. She agreed to one more night in her crib and on Tuesday we took the front rail off of her crib. Only once converted, Sage was once again not so sure life without her crib was what she wanted. Over the next few weeks she would occasionally cry that she didn't want a big girl bed - always as we are tucking her in. We comfort her and promise to put her rails back on the next day if she wants. The next day she demurs and decides to stick with the big girl bed, until a few nights later as we tuck her in. Lucy has never looked back. 

Haunted by tales of big girl transitions from my twin friends, I had been dreading this transition.  Knock on wood, but one month in, the girls have stayed in bed and waited for us to get them up. The girls know that they are not allowed out of bed until their clock turns green (thank you Rodney and Trish!), but they stay in bed even after it turns (this morning, Sage saw me put something in her room after I went for a morning run. I whispered to her to stay put until I took a shower - and she did!). Lucy fell out the first night while "reading" at the foot of her bed closest to Sage. We expect that this "reading" may have involved some bouncing. Since then, both girls have taken our admonitions re bouncing in their beds much more seriously. 

Brian and I are still shaking our heads by how fast this whole transition went down.  We were spoiled by a prolonged babyhood of our slow growing, slow developing little girls. But ever since they turned three, everything seems to have accelerated and our little girls are certainly not babies and no longer toddlers. They are long and lean preschoolers. Physically, they are suddenly climbing and jumping all the time. The other night, they didn't want to cuddle during our bedtime songs, but rather sit on the rocking footrest and then slide down to dance. Only when I was giving final kisses did Lucy demand a cuddle. Too late, sister, although Mommy was missing our cuddle, too.