You know that saying- "if it ain't broke, don't fix it?" Well that exactly how I felt about the whole "big boy bed" situation. Although I felt size-wise he was absolutely ready to make the transition, he had never really climbed out of his crib or even attempted to do so. He seemed perfectly content, and I was perfectly content to have him contained in his crib.
But with Charlie on the way and Henry getting potty-trained, I felt like this was a big, important step in finishing up the leap into the world of being a big boy. We'd been talking about what being a "big boy" meant for awhile as far as potty training and responsibilities around the house (big boys do this, boys act like this, and so on), and Henry was very into the whole idea...while I of course, held back tears thinking of my boy growing any farther away from that baby self.
Although Henry's bed transitioned to a toddler bed, I didn't want to even deal with another move when we eventually switched to a twin bed, so we decided to just go directly from crib to twin. Hank and I talked about our bed, the "big bed," and asked him if he would like his own in his room, and we asked if he would like to pick out his own sheets, blankets, etc. The answer, of course, was "YES!" That weekend we headed down and picked up this bed from IKEA. We chose this particular frame primarily because it's a modern design we love without breaking the bank. Every other bed I gravitated towards was no less than $400 at best, and that was just not going to fly. I happened upon this IKEA frame while looking on Pinterest one night and fell in love. It fit into our aesthetic and was a cool $99. Awesome. I also knew that I wanted a bed close to the ground. One HUGE minus to this frame though, are the very angular and sharp corners. Henry sometimes forgets that the bed sits on and inside the frame, and we've had a few instances where he's went to run and jump onto his bed and rammed his shins. Other than that though, we love it.
The next weekend we went as a family to our local mattress store and let Henry try out all the mattresses and "choose" one to bring home (although we had already chosen the twin one he'd be getting). This was a really fun experience for him and gave him some ownership over his new bed. After the mattress store we headed to Target and he got to pick out some sheets, which only added to the excitement.
We got home before naptime, so Hank put the bare mattress on the ground in Henry's room and let him nap on it as a test. At this point we still had the crib up in his room, and although we didn't preface the nap on the mattress too much, we did tell him that if he didn't behave like a big boy (again, that term!), then he would have to make the move back to his crib. The nap went well and he didn't get up off of the mattress once. Once he woke up later, we put together the IKEA frame and we all made the bed and got it ready for his first night in it (again, still leaving the crib up and reminding him he could easily go back). Henry was so excited, and again, rather than make a huge deal about getting out, we just told him how proud we were, and reminded him once that if he got out of bed the crib would be waiting for him, and did our normal bedtime routine.
I wasn't too sure what to expect because hey, we've never done this before, but both Hank and I were pleasantly surprised by the outcome. And now, we have our big boy loving his big boy bed, and sleeping even better than he was before with all of his comfy pillows and blankets. It's been almost two months now, and it's definitely been a success.
yesterday at naptime
Do you have any tips or tricks you'd add? I'm sure readers would love to read about your experience too, so feel free to chime in below!
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