Bed Transition and a Big Girl Room

I've mentioned a time or two that we bought a big girl bed for Aubrey recently and moved her from her crib into the new bed. I'm so happy and relieved to report that the transition has been basically perfect. For the record, I was pretty petrified to make this change. Aubrey slept great in her crib, and she was contained for naptime, which was so important to me. Even if she chooses not to sleep, she still has to stay in her room for a certain amount of time, and I was so worried that would become a major ordeal when we moved her into a bed that she could get out of.

After I bought her big girl bed, we explained to her that she was going to be sleeping in a new bed. She was actually SO EXCITED about this! She literally could not wait for us to get her bed set up. It didn't hurt that I got her some "pink covers" (sheets) for her new bed. Anything involving pink is just awesome as far as Aubrey is concerned! :) Her bed is a full size bed, and we decided not to do any bed rails. One of my favorite baby/toddler books written by a pediatrician actually doesn't recommend bed rails, and I think a bed looks better without rails (obviously), so we decided to just see how it went without any. If we felt like we needed them, we would have just gotten some after we realized they were going to be a necessity. I'm happy to report that Aubrey has only fallen out of the bed once, and she was totally fine. It did scare her, but she wasn't hurt. It was in the middle of the night, and it about scared the daylights out of David and me when we heard a crash and a scream over the monitor. Like I said though, she was fine, and she wanted to get right back in her bed and go back to sleep. It hasn't happened again since. We just make sure there isn't anything hard that would hurt her around the bed if she did happen to fall out. She has carpet in her room, so that helps too.

We also decided that we weren't going to make a rule that she had to stay in her bed. Because she was older when we moved her, we felt like she was old enough to make the decision about whether or not she should get out of bed. If she chooses to play and skip her nap, that's fine, but she will be tired later, and maybe she will know not to skip it the next day. Also, since we don't have a video monitor, it would have been hard to enforce this rule because we wouldn't really have any way of knowing if she was out of her bed unless we went into her room. This was what we decided would work for Aubrey, but I know every family and child is different, and for some kids, I think it probably would work best to have a "no getting out of bed" rule. Anyway, so far this hasn't been an issue, because Aubrey NEVER gets out of bed unless we go into her room and tell her she can get out. I was shocked by this. I thought she would be out of her bed the moment we shut her door. Even when she wakes up in the morning or after nap, she just calls for me to come get her, and as soon as I open her door, she jumps out of bed. It's so funny! I wouldn't mind if she got up in the mornings and just played quietly in her room for a while, but I'm not going to put that idea into her head! The way it is now is working out fine, so I'm going to leave well enough alone! I am so relieved that this transition went so well. I really had prepared myself for no sleep for days, and I half expected her to drop her nap completely. She does skip her nap probably once or twice a week, but she did that while she was still in her crib. As long as she is having quiet rest time in her room, it doesn't really matter to me whether she sleeps or not. She isn't all that dependant on her nap anymore now that she's older, and she can skip it and still be in a good mood that evening.

It's been fun to be able to start thinking about finishing Aubrey's room now that we have her big girl bed. I got a white matelasse coverlet for her bed, and now I just need to have some Euro shams made. I would like to do some kind of canopy over her bed, but I don't know how that will work with the way her ceiling is sloped. I'm using this blue floral fabric in her room, and I got this pink fabric to go with it.I LOVE the pink fabric. I was originally going to use it to make window seat cushions, but then I thought I might want to use it in a way that would be seen more. So, I can't decide.

I also got this mirror for her room recently, and I think it looks perfect over her dresser. I still need to get a nightstand for her, and I'm planning on painting it blue to match her fabric and distressing it. We also still have to do the moulding boxes on the walls below the chair rail, and THEN I think we should be about finished with Aubrey's big girl room! I can't wait for it to all come together! :)