Big Girl Bed

Layla was recently upgraded to a toddler bed. This was because she crawled out of her crib on Tuesday night, while her daddy was out for a run and I was downstairs and couldn't immediately respond to her insistent yelling. When she crawled out for the first time over a year ago, we promised ourselves we'd convert her bed as soon as she did it again (no sooner, because she has a terrible time napping and we didn't want to encourage problems). Fortunately she held out for a long time. Now, I hope the bed conversion will be an easier transition for her and we don't create any new problems (fingers crossed!).

She adores the new bed, and so far it is not a big problem. Thanks to the daycare, which has her sleep on an open cot during nap time, she was familiar with the idea of staying in bed when we instructed her to do so. She also didn't seem too shaken up by the big change (a year ago she would have been - she would get very upset when we rotated her crib or took out the throw rug for a washing!).

After about two hours of sleeping on the first night, she rolled out of bed (you can see where the guard rail ends there's lots of room to roll out). Fortunately the Studly Hubby predicted this might happen and had lined the floor with pillows. We heard a soft thud, a brief cry, and then nothing - but when I went to check on her she was asleep on top of the pillows on the floor instead of in her bed. I assume she either didn't wake up at all or woke up only briefly. She didn't acknowledge that she remembered it in the morning. She hasn't fallen out again, and normally she doesn't roll around that much so hopefully this will be an infrequent event.

We haven't truly tested it with a nap yet - she's usually pretty good at night but the naps are where we really get challenged - like her mommy, she's a very light sleeper and has a tough time settling down in the middle of the day for a nap. Hopefully by the time the weekend rolls around the new bed will be old news.