Home Grown: I'm a Big Kid Now!

Josie getting all cozy for the first time in her new Big Girl bed with her new Big Girl Pillow!

Friday, October 9th was a very changing day in our household. Josie can officially say "I'm a Big Kid Now!" Josie is potty trained for the most part already. But she stepped up the Big Kid ladder on Friday when we converted her crib to a toddler bed. Meaning, we took off the front crib rail and placed up 2 short half rails. Josie loves it! Josie and I went shopping Friday night for a little while, when Daddy went hunting and purchased a Big Girl Pillow. You know Big Girls who sleep in Big Girl Beds get to sleep with Big Girl pillows. She was ecstatic over this and loves her pillow.

It has really changed in the morning times. She gets herself up out of bed, yells at the door, opens the door then runs directly into our bedrooms and demand that we get up. 7 AM came really early this morning. We try to get her just to snuggle up in our bed with us and potentially go back to bed, but no go most of the time. This morning, she was very quiet when she got up. I turned to Brent in bed and said did you hear something. We can usually hear her over the monitor walking around in her room or jiggling the door handle, but not this morning. Brent turned over to see her standing next to him on his side of the bed. Man was she very sneaky this morning.

Nap time is a different story. There are times when she fights you at nap time. Even though she is extremely tired, sometimes she will fight you till the end. At night she is a heavy sleeper, however during the day she is very light. I lay on the ground next to her bed until she gets really sleepy or falls asleep. However, today I tried 3 times to sneak out of her room and each of the 3 times she woke up before I got out and cried and climbed out of bed, so back to square one we were. The last time I just let her cry. I can not keep laying on her floor until she falls asleep. She has to learn to fall asleep for her own. I she quit crying after just a few minutes, so I thought she had fallen asleep, so I cracked open her door to take a peek and make sure. No go. She was up out of bed playing on her sheep that rocks. So, back to bed I put her. She cried yet again for a few minutes but this time fell fast asleep.

We have been putting off putting Josie in a big girl bed since her birthday, so since I get an extra long weekend and Brent was off we thought I was the perfect time to tackle this. We are going to make the full transition in pieces. We have the toddler rails up now, next will be the day bed, then we will purchase an actual twin size bed. We plan to have the new bed by New Years that way once the baby is here the transition is over and she is used to everything. Next big thing to tackle will be the Binky that she has to have to sleep with. We keep telling her big girls do not sleep with Binky's, so hopefully she will get rid of it on her own. We do not want to make to many changes all at once, so once the bed is taken care of the Bink will go next. I have set a deadline that the Bink will be gone before the new baby comes. Big sisters do not need Binky's!