“STAY IN BED!”

Transitions are always difficult… they take careful planning and vision and discipline.  They are a necessary evil in life that can turn into a hassle or a blessing depending on the preparations beforehand.  Well, we knew that we wanted Josiah to transition into this BIG BOY BED soon.  Our baby will be born soon, so we need Josiah to get out of the crib and into his bed.  We need him to be comfortable with it so the transition to having a new baby will not overlap his transition to bed.  Transitioning him to a big boy bed is just one of those necessary things for us… we were praying that it would be easy! 

Anyway, Danny and I transitioned the girls well to their new beds before the other new babies arrived, but we were a little nervous about Josiah.

                   Grace in her bed at almost 2 years old!                                        Hannah in her bed at 18 months – the same as Josiah!

 

I assured Danny that with proper training Josiah would do well (I was really trying to convince myself of this!).  I wanted to try this when Danny was home – it is always helpful to have another pair of hands to put the child back in bed if necessary OR another voice to praise the child OR another able set of feet to run if there is a problem OR another pair of ears to hear if there is a crying/jumping/etc.

BUT this DIDN’T go as I had carefully laid out in my mind.  On Friday morning I had a doctors appointment so Danny was home with the kids.  I went to the grocery store after my appointment which is always much more relaxing by myself than with three children in tow.  When I got home, Danny told me he had something to show me.  He led me upstairs to Josiah’s room and opened the door…Josiah was NOT in his crib!!  Where was he?  He was across the hall in his BIG BOY BED and was sound asleep!  I immediately started to cry… my baby boy in his bed!  It was quite a sight!  He looked so small in his twin bed… so comfy, though!  I hadn’t been a part of his FIRST TIME experience…. I have always been there for the firsts… but NOT this one!  I was so proud of him for doing this!  What a big boy!

After I got over the initial emotionalness of it all with lots of tears, I was so happy that Danny had started this.  He just thought, “It has to be done some time when I am home… why not today?”  Josiah did great and cried for us when he was done with his nap…an hour after Danny put him down.  AND… HE HAS DONE WELL EVER SINCE THEN!  He has been sleeping in his big boy bed since Friday at morning nap and has continued until today – Monday afternoon!   We have encouraged him to stay in bed and have even played the “STAY IN BED” Game that we did with the girls – where we pretend that it is sleeping time and role play what to do.  He has done well with that as well. He loves his bed, covers, and pillow – especially since his pillow has a case that Nanna made for him with balls ALL OVER IT!   He loves all of the praise – from Grace, Hannah, Danny and me!  What a fantastic transition…we don’t know if it will continue to go this well with only our word keeping him in bed – but we are thrilled with the progress!

Here is our little man… I just had to show all the pictures of him in his bed!

He is just SO PROUD OF HIMSELF!!!!