The Saga of Sleep & the Big Girl Bed

There comes a time in everyone's life when they must graduate from their crib to a Big Girl/Boy Bed. For some that comes earlier than others: My mom-in-law tells me my husband was one of these as he discovered he could launch himself out of his crib at the tender age of 1 1/2 years old. YIKES!

Anyway, once Kyra turned 2, we decided it was time for her to try a big girl bed. Although we had yet to find her with a leg draped over the side of the crib, or worse, heard the scary THUMP! and well, you know the rest..., she was quickly outgrowing her crib space, and seemed ready to make the move.

We shopped around the local furniture stores, and online to find just the perfect bed, and the day after Christmas went to Wickes to buy one very similar to the one shown in the picture. We were told they had them in stock, and we could pick one up, at their warehouse, in as little as 2 days. We were thrilled!

We arranged to go pick it up that Saturday, the 29th of December (which also happened to be Kyra's birthday). David borrowed my folks' truck, and made the drive downtown, only to be told, "We don't have any bed for you today. Your order is scheduled to arrive on January 12th." When he came home with no bed, I immediately got on the phone to their customer service department to express my dissatisfaction with the so-called mix-up. They apologized, and explained the delivery date we were quoted was actually an estimated date, not a guaranteed date. What?!?!? We were told it was in stock, and could be picked up in 2 days. Now we were going to have to wait an additional 2 weeks? Okay.

The 9th of January rolled around, and we received a phone call from Wickes, saying they were sorry, but the bed would not be there that Saturday the 12th. We thanked them for the call, and then asked when WOULD we see it? You'll never guess what they said. February 19th! A full 7 1/2 weeks later for a bed that was supposedly in stock. Needless to say, we were not thrilled, but what can you do? Demand your money back, and then have to go somewhere else, and possibly wait just as long or longer?

In the meantime, we knew we were running out of crib containment time, so we decided to move David's old twin bed from his growing up years, from our upstairs office area to her room. We also chose to leave her crib up in her room, as advised by our good friends, Katie & Luke, so if we needed a fall-back plan, it would still be available--very wise words!!!

The first week went great! She loved her big girl bed, and at night, she stayed there, all night long. Afternoon naps were another issue, as being able to see (and get up and play with) her toys proved to be just too much for her--Back to the baby bed.

Now to the past couple nights. I don't know if it's because she's currently getting her 2-yr molars, or she's going through a little separation anxiety, or it's the snow and Daddy being home more (Hee hee!!!), or a little bit of all those things, but WOW! Bedtime has really been a challenge! The only thing that's changed, as far as we know, in her nighttime routine, is her place to sleep. We've also told her if she's scared or feeling icky or has a messy diaper, she can call out to us, or come get us. Other than that, she needs to stay in her bed. No getting up to play toys, no coming out to the family room to see what we're doing, etc.

I guess we've been pretty lucky so far, as she's always gone to sleep with little or no problems. But now we're at a loss as to how to proceed. We don't want to keep putting her in her baby bed, as that feels like negative progress. And spanking her for something like this is not an option. Tonight it was 9:30 before she fell asleep, in her baby bed, after multiple times of walking her back into her room to her big girl bed, tucking her in yet again, and David even sitting in there with her for awhile.

So now we come to you, oh seasoned parents, in hopes of receiving some much-needed words of wisdom regarding a little girl and a big bed. By the way, my mom shared this comic strip with me today as a little encouragement--The storyline starts on Jan 22nd, so be sure to go back and get the whole thing :-)

Wishing for more snow,
k~