Bed Time

Dear Kate,

Sweet Precious Kate...  Look what you have become... 

That's right.  You have become a climber, or more specifically, a Climb Out of the Crib climber.  And, guess what that means.  Sniff, sniff... no more crib...  I am sad for multiple reasons - 1) the obvious 'my baby's not a baby anymore reason, but more importantly 2) Our perfect sleeping nights could be over!  Daddy on the other hand thinks this is the greatest thing ever and has been wanting to transfer you for awhile now into a big girl bed.  I'm positive he's been smoking crack at night.  What is he thinking??  He claims that you and Sister will sleep peacefully together, all night long.  It's the crack.  There is no other explanation.  So the first time it happened, I tried to ignore it and just put you back in the crib.  Nope, you climbed right back out.  I decided for nap that I would just hold you until you fell asleep...

 I wasn't' thrilled about this.  To say the least, you didn't sleep long...

 That night I had to rock you until you fell asleep and 'gracefully' put you in the crib.  Not an easy task at all.  The next day was a no brainer, we had to switch you over to a big girl bed.  Thankfully Sister has two twin beds in her room so we just moved on of those over to your room.

You and Sister were thrilled.  Daddy was having a moment of clarity.  At naptime, we had a bit of trouble in the new bed, to say the least.  I got this text from Daddy...

He realizes now he needs to lay off the crack.  He was very proud though that he did indeed get you to sleep.  Who cares if it meant rocking you in full princess attire...

 It didn't last too long, but at least you got a nap in.

So that night we decided to kick it in full gear and do the whole "take you back to your bed as many times as it takes" routine.  Low and behold, it worked and maybe one or two times out of the bed and you were asleep!!!

 This can't be true!  It can't be this easy!
No, it wasn't.  For some reason, the first couple of nights were no issues, but then the realization of it all kicked in.  We found you being a bit creepy a couple of times.  Yes, that's you in the corner of Sister's room.  She was sound asleep.

You never really cried and thankfully, we never had to lock you in (like a certain sister of yours), but you would go to the door and just sit there, occasionally peek your head out, then slam the door shut.  It took a good 2 weeks, but I can say now that you are, again, perfect to put to bed.  We had to make a few adjustments to your nap (as in waking you up earlier) so you can be tired by bedtime, but now all we do is read you a book, sing you a song and tuck you in!  You stay put and stay asleep.  Most of the time.  As with any kiddo, there are those nights you need Mommy to come in at 2 in the morning and lay with you, or you wake up at 5:45 at the foot of my bed.  I guess it's just the next step in growing up, huh.  I'm so happy the transition to the big girl bed wasn't that bad.  You are such a big girl now and it makes Mommy so proud!!  Love you big girl!