New Rooms and a Big Boy Bed

With baby #2 on the way, we have been trying to brainstorm how we are all going to fit in our little apartment. The 2 bedrooms are the same square footage, but are shaped differently. We decided to swap rooms with Taysom and keep his crib in our new room and put him in a new big boy bed. We had decided this a while ago, but have put off doing it. We bought a toddler bed and set it up, and have had it set up at the foot of our bed for about 2 weeks. We keep tripping over it, and there really was no room for anything. Chris had finally had enough and said "that's it, we're switching rooms, NOW!" So we spent all afternoon rearranging furniture. I still have a box or two in the hallway that is waiting to be sorted, but other than that, the rooms are rearranged, the toddler bed is set up, and the crib is ready for baby #2 (pending a new mattress).

Side note:
We are all LOVING the switch of bedrooms. The layout of his new room is very square and great for playing. Our new room is long and just feels better all together. Every day since the switch Chris comes down stairs and says "I really love our new rooms!" (Which is funny because he was not really on board until now). I have a few absolute favorite things about the change.

1. Both Taysom's dresser and ours fit in our closets which frees up SO much room.
2. WE HAVE A WALK IN CLOSET!!!! We had been using it mostly as storage, but now it's an actual, real life, walk in closet - and I love it!
3. Taysom has this absolutely adorable built in book shelf. SO CUTE!

The super cute book shelf

Back to the story:
I was so worried about putting Taysom in the big boy bed. I was partially worried about doing it the same day as switching rooms, but mostly just worried about having to sleep train and experience the whole "cry it out 2.0" thing. We were totally prepared for a terrible nights sleep for about a week. But none the less, we strategized. There were many parts to our strategy, and I'm not sure which worked, but I will dare say that the transition went FLAWLESSLY! So, for future reference, I am recording exactly what we did. (I know I am probably jinxing it, but we have already had 4 successful nights and he is currently taking his 4th successful nap. That's success, right?!)

Strategies:

1. Like I said, we had the bed set up for about 2 weeks in our room (which has now become his room). We would occasionally put his mattress on it and explain that this was going to be his new big boy bed. I think this helped it to be a little less new and scary by the time he actually slept in it. He was able to play on it and get used to it for a while.
2. We wore him out! Like, seriously tired him out. We usually put him to bed at 7pm, but we decided at 7:15pm to go on a long walk. Then we gave him a bath. He was sooooo tired, I think he would have slept anywhere!
3. We kept our regular routine. We brushed teeth, got jammies on, read a book (see number 4), read scriptures, said prayer, sang a song, gave kisses and "i love you"'s, then laid him in bed with his favorite super soft blanket (made special by Grandma Hurst), his 2 favorite stuffed animals (Prayer Bear and George), his normal pillow, and a bottle of milk. (Yes, I know, the bottle really needs to go... that's next on our "how to grow up" list.) I hurried and turned on his fan (like always), turned off the light, and booked it out of the room, closing the door behind me.
4. We have a book called Big Bed for Giraffe which is (obviously) about a boy giraffe who is too big for his crib and gets a new big bed. We have had this for a long time and read it a few times, but this time we really slowed down and pointed to the pictures and talked about what was going on in the book, relating it to what was going on in Taysom's room. 
5. As we were changing rooms and again when we were going through our bedtime routine, we explained the changes and that this was his new big boy bed and asked if he was excited.
6. (This has more to do with waking up) I put a pile of 5-6 books by his bed. I thought that if he woke up, he could just look at them. He totally did!

Results:

As we laid him down, he sat up and fussed for literally one second. We hurried out of the room as fast as we could. By the time I got across the hall and in my room to look at the baby monitor, he was laying down drinking his milk. HE NEVER GOT OUT OF BED!!!! He went straight to sleep! (This could have been due to how worn out he was.) Chris works at 3:00am, and was kind of loud getting ready for work. Taysom half way woke up, just enough to climb out of bed, fuss for a second, and lay down on the floor. Chris went in and laid him back in bed and he went right to sleep. This happened the second night as well. After that, we realized that his new room is much closer to the bathroom and that he will need to try harder to be quiet in the mornings. He was super careful yesterday morning and Taysom stayed asleep!

Reading "Go Dog Go" in his bed. He is totally my boy!

I was awake before Taysom in the morning (a rare occurrence) so I waited and watched him on the monitor. He "slow woke up" (This is what we always say, meaning stretched and rolled around, just laying in bed, awake, taking his sweet time). He sat up a few times and looked around, but laid back down. Once he decided to get out of bed he spun in circles a few times. I think he was a little confused, but not upset or sad, just bewildered. He eventually saw the pile of books I had put out for him. He grabbed one and took it to the reading chair. He sat and looked at it for a few minutes. I think he realized that his bed looked way more comfortable and that he would not be stuck or confined there like he would be in his crib. He got up and took his book back to his bed. He laid there reading books for about 10 minutes before I decided to go in. He was so happy when I came in. He didn't mind being in the room. He wanted to continue reading books. Uhm, success?!

I was super worried about nap time. So many people have told me that once they transitioned their kids out of the crib, they wouldn't take naps. I was SO not ready for that. He NEEDS his nap.... I NEED his nap! However, to my surprise, we went through our normal nap time routine and I said "Go get in your new bed!" and he did so with a smile on his face! He was EXCITED to sleep in his new bed! 

I guess that's the end of the post since nap #3 is over now and he probably needs a diaper change. The moral of the story is, big boy beds ROCK!!! I am so happy we made the transition now, instead of closer to the arrival of baby #2. This was definitely a parenting win, and a success in my book!

What I see on the video monitor right this second.