Big Kid Beds

Because there wasn’t enough going on over the holiday weekend, what with a dozen family members eating turkey in Indy and two sets of grandparents at our house and putting up the Christmas tree, we also switched Henry and Eleanor from cribs to toddler beds on Saturday. Hey kids! Let’s screw up your schedule for four days and then force a major life change upon you!

I had bought the beds about a month ago, and decided to put them together and take down the cribs while my dad was here to help (and by “help,” I mean “do it all”). I was dreading the move to big kid beds; Henry and Eleanor have done wonderfully in cribs and haven’t tried to escape, allowing me precious time to collect myself in the mornings and after naps. And yeah, I had a brief cry while disassembling the cribs, when it hit me that NO MORE BABIES IN THE HOUSE.

But you should have seen Henry and Eleanor, they were SO excited over their “big boy bed” and “big girl bed.” They jumped up and down, and asked lots of questions about them, and when Andy and Dad carried them into the kids’ room Eleanor exclaimed “I LOVE MY NEW BED!”

We’re having the expected adjustment issues, but they’re getting used to the new sleeping arrangements. Naps have been hard. They were too excited with the new beds—and the sweet taste of freedom they offered—to nap on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday afternoon we had an hour of toddler wrangling, but the kids finally fell asleep for a three-hour nap (three! hours!). But today was another mostly-napless day, two hours of up and down before drifting off to sleep.

Saturday night involved Henry and Eleanor getting out of bed, Andy and I putting them back in bed, repeat for an hour, then setting up pack & plays in their room for them to sleep in. Once they were asleep we moved them back to the beds, where they stayed for the rest of the night. The threat of having to move to the pack & plays made bedtime last night and tonight go pretty smoothly.

The cutest thing, though? On Saturday night Andy and I snuck into the kids’ room to check on them. We found Henry curled up at the foot of Eleanor’s bed. And at every naptime and bedtime they have asked to sleep in each other’s bed. I love seeing their twin bond, even if it pops up when I just want them to go to sleep already.