Big Boy Bed!!!!

Above: Eli's first night in his big boy bed!

Below:  Nap time a week or two later (with a pair of his sister's flower sheets on the bottom while his got washed)!:)

Well, we've done it...we've moved Eli into a Big Boy Bed!!  It's been maybe a month now and he loves his big bed (a mattress and box spring on the floor).  None of it though has really gone as expected.  I expected that he would have a hard time falling asleep at nap time, but have an easier time going to bed for the night.  It's been the total opposite.  Usually at nap time he goes right to sleep (or every now and then comes out of his room once).  Bedtime?  That's a different story.  Bedtime has been difficult...he runs around, opens his door, yells for us until we come, and even sneaks into Lily's room to play (while she is asleep).  It was becoming pretty normal for it to take him an hour and a half or two hours to fall asleep at night (and wake up at the same time as normal in the morning)...uggghhh!  Even when we would put the baby gate at his door he would stand there and scream until we came (and we just couldn't let him scream because Lily is right across the hall and we didn't want her constantly getting woken up).  So the other day Joe switched door knobs to his room and for the last 3 nights we have been locking him in his room so he can't open the door and scream.  Now he just screams inside his room (which is much quieter).  And it's working...now that he's learning that we won't come up every time he screams he is falling asleep much faster (apparently it's just not worth all that effort)!:)  It's just like when we had to let him cry it out to learn to sleep through the night when he was a baby...and it's nearly just as heartbreaking for me to listen to...but I know it's the best thing for him (because getting two less hours of sleep a night has NOT been good for him at all).  And, don't worry, we unlock the door after he's asleep to be safe.  Thankfully he's always been great at staying in his bed once he's asleep (and he's only rolled out once or twice)!:)

Truth be told I would have been happier keeping him in his crib for the rest of the year, but we are preparing for a lot of travel this summer and Eli hates his travel bed now so it was just time...and hopefully we'll have a few more of the kinks worked out before we start traveling in about a month.  We took down the crib for the first time in five years...they are growing up!