A Big Bed for a Big Girl

On Friday night, we made the switch from crib to the big bed for Gemma - not a toddler bed, but her bed bed. After supper, Jesse (with Gemma's help) took the crib apart and said goodbye. We were so worried about all kinds of safety issues with the bed (her falling off it while she fools around before going to sleep, etc), but in the end decided that she will just have to know not to jump on it. Although she is used to sleeping in pure darkness, I put up two night lights so she can see the edges of the bed if she were to wake up and also the step stool that she uses to go up on to the bed. 

Of course we were also curious to see how she would handle her first night and what she would do with all this freedom (of not being cooped up), so we set up a video camera. 

When we left after saying goodnight, she cried very briefly, but then was quiet. Then, about 20 minutes later, she began crying again and I could hear her trying to open her door. Then, the crying went further away from the door. I went in after about 20 minutes of her crying and found her sitting on her bed. I said goodnight to her again, took the video camera, and left her room. 

When we watched the video, we saw that right away she actually tried to sleep (that was the 20 minutes of quiet). Then, she got restless and started to cry, came down the steps and to the door, then went back to the steps, back to the door, then back to the steps, climbed up, and sat on her bed and cried there for about 5 minutes before I came in. 

Jesse and I were super impressed that she didn't spend the initial part jumping or acting crazy (which is what she would do in her crib for upwards of an hour before actually falling asleep). 

In the morning, my mom went in at the first sound of her being awake and found her sitting on her step, reading a book. *insert awww here*

On Saturday, her nap proved to be more difficult and she only slept 30 minutes after screaming for 40 minutes. 

Today, she has been sleeping for 1 hour now. 

I was worried about moving her out of her crib cold turkey, but I think she is handling it quite well. The crib is sitting in our room, but she hasn't pined for it or anything. I think she is ready to pass it on to Leni...