The Big Boy Bed

A couple weekends ago, we decided to turn Juan Pablo's crib into a toddler bed. We rock him to sleep every night (and at naptime), so we're hoping the bed will make it easier to slowly transition away from rocking him to sleep and helping him learn to fall asleep on his own. We went to Ikea and let him pick out a new stuffed animal. He picked out a big elephant, and quickly named it Ouagadougou. We came home and set up his new bed, complete with Ouagadougou, his new bedtime buddy. That first night, he was way too excited to sleep. Jeff stayed with him for an hour, trying to help him calm down, until Juan Pablo kicked him out of the room. He didn't fall asleep on his own, however, so finally at 10pm, Jeff went back in and insisted on rocking him to sleep. The next day, he was too excited to nap. Our naptime routine, which normally takes me about 10 minutes, took 45 minutes. He has the hang of it now though, and has been going to sleep pretty well...
...and he hasn't fallen off the bed!