No more baby crib!

With no help from the Internet, we decided to take the plunge. {Y’all had NO comments?!} We got rid of the crib railing and put in the smallest, shortest rail to keep a wiggly toddler in check. As most toddler plans go, we didn’t get it done yesterday because someone decided to spend over two hours talking during nap time. Then finally took an hour and a half nap that butted right up to our dinner plans. Tonight we decided real quick to do it. I took bath time and Bryan converted the crib to a toddler bed. Maximus took a bath, brushed his teeth, I cut his finger and toe nails, and we brushed his hair. When we were done, I took him in his room to put his pjs on. No kidding, we barely put one foot into his room and he saw the new railing. Nothing gets past that kid! {He gets that from me. :)} Our plan was to try to ignore it and hope that he didn’t notice it. We’re a little naive sometimes. 🙂 As soon as he was dressed, he went over to check things out. He didn’t even hesitate to climb up and lay down while saying, “night-night me.” Yup, that’s your new bed little dude!

Bryan came in to see him in there. I gave him a little baby pillow and a new blanket that would cover the whole bed. We thought this was going to be way easier than anticipated. He seemed to be ready for bed RIGHT THEN! We decided to stick to the nighttime routine  in hopes that everything would go smoothly. We told him no when he tried to stick a leg over the high part of the railing. We taught him to sit down to get out of the bed. We told him that’s where he goes night-night, just like at daycare with a pillow and blanket. We told him mommy and daddy didn’t fit in the bed, it was just for Maximus. {Secretly I’ve been ready for the conversion SO I could rest with him in his bed.}

Like most nights, he tried to get us to keep reading to him. I picked him up and tried to give him a kiss and tell him it was time to go night-night. He reached for his bed and I put him down. Like most nights recently, he didn’t lay down. A couple of times he started to but he pops back up. He watches us to see what we’re going to do. He always wants to be covered up and holding his tag, so he usually cries if we leave the room. Tonight he was standing near the edge of his bed. I had already told him no when he was dangling his foot over the edge. I told him we don’t get out of our bed. {Hopefully that will work in the morning too!} We hadn’t decided if we were going to shut the door or not. We haven’t up until this point. I decided not to and stood outside his door listening to him and watching through the crack to see if he got out of bed. He moved around a lot and started whimpering. Bryan met me at the door and our hearts broke for him as he whimpered. We both knew he was trying to cover himself up. At one point he said, “tag?” His tag is his comfort zone. It was all I could do not to go in there and cover him up and give him a tag to hold. But, I knew it would only make it worse. I peaked in enough to see that he was laying on his tummy in the right spot. That was enough for us and we went into the living room.

We sat in silence, each of us on a computer, for the better part of 30 minutes while we listening to him over the monitor. Breathing heavy and tossing and turning. We knew he wasn’t asleep. He’s usually not a restless sleeper. But, usually if he doesn’t want to sleep he talks. The only word that came out of his mouth was the quiet whisper of “tag.” It’s funny how quickly the newborn days come flashing back. I remember sitting in the living room, barely whispering, with the TV almost on mute, and moving about the house as quiet as a mouse. Our first night of the toddler conversion was much the same way. We didn’t want to call attention to anything!

After an hour, I went in and snapped a picture of my little baby. I guess he’s not a baby anymore. The picture proves it.