Ella's New Bed

A few weeks ago we moved Ella to a big girl bed. I was really nervous to move her, much more so than I remember with Andrew. I was really afraid she would be up at 6 am. When she was in her crib, she sometimes woke up really early, but if I didn't go in right away, she would fall back to sleep. I wasn't sure what would happen when she could get out of bed. When we were taking the crib down and putting together her new bed, she didn't seem so sure. She wanted me to hold her and she just kept watching everything Matt was doing and laying her head on my shoulder. She almost seemed sad. Once we had the bed up and in her room, she seemed a little more excited. Rob and Katie, Papa, and Aunt Melanie all happened to stop by some time that evening, so Ella got to show everyone her new bed. She kept saying, "See Ella new bed." I think it helped build excitement for her to show everyone. And her favorite part to show was that she could climb on and then jump off.

The transition went much smoother than expected. The first night went really well. She went to bed well and slept until almost 8:00 the next morning. She rarely sleeps that late! Night time has continued to go well. She does get up sometimes to get something, but always heads back to bed and falls asleep. She hasn't been up any earlier than normal in the mornings. She actually doesn't come out of her room when she does wake up. She either calls for me or finds something to play with until I come in to get her.

Nap time was a little tougher. It took her 6 days to finally take a nap in her new bed without first having to drive her around to get her to fall asleep. She just could not resist the temptation to play. She would be in there for 1-2 hours playing and still not fall asleep. I would go in and tell her not to get up and that it was time for bed. She never got upset. She laid down and then waited for me to leave to start playing again. On the 6th day, I talked to her for a while before leaving about staying in bed, reading her books, and laying down for a nap....and she did! It took her a while, but she did fall asleep. I peeked in on her and she had propped her Little Mermaid book up on her pillow and was lying on her belly reading. About 30 minutes later, she was still lying there looking at her book. And then finally she was asleep. She does still always get up to get something, a baby, Barbies, books, animals, but she has been doing much better falling asleep within a reasonable amount of time.

All in all, it wasn't as bad as expected. The transition is complete, going well, and hopefully continues to go well. She looks so sweet and so big in her new bed!