no turning back

Mr. Gabriel is 3 1/2 years old and as of yesterday he has officially graduated to a big boy bed. Mommy is not sure if this is a good idea or not, but it's been long in coming and I think he's up for the task.

When Taylor turned 2 years old, we set up a big boy bed, talked all about it with Taylor. I was so eager for milestones with my first born. Sure, it was fun at first, until he didn't want to go to sleep and we had to lock him in his room until he wore himself out and fell asleep (sometimes on the floor).

With Paige, we didn't whip out the big girl bed right at age 2 - but it wasn't much later than that. I regretted it almost immediately. She was born an excellent sleeper. I would rock her as we talked about our day, and then I'd lay her in her crib and she'd put herself to sleep. As soon as she felt the freedom of life with no crib it all changed. Her strong willed nature started to rear it's pretty little head and bedtime became more difficult and cuddles became mandatory for sleep.

As for Gabriel, I was on child #3 and had learned a few things from the last two times. He wasn't ready at age 2 anyway. But about a year ago, he started to climb out of the crib and I wondered if maybe it was time. Not quite ready to give up nap time (sometimes I could just stick him in there for an hour knowing that he and the house were safe whether he slept or not) I bought a crib tent to keep our climber in and I've loved it.

As I was packing for our trip out of town, I wondered what we'd do for Gabriel's sleeping arrangements. Last time we rigged something up over a pack-n-play, but he's outgrown it. All we found on short notice was a really masculine pink Dora the Explorer air mattress. He loved having his own 'big' bed! And he did really great. With a bit of sadness, I realized it was time.

So that I can't change my mind, we took the crib apart and set up the BIG BOY BED! Once it was put up, we asked Gabriel where his bed was and he kept pointing to the crib that Todd was taking down. We let him jump on the new bed a bit and lay down to snuggle his doggie.

Our first night was cute. Gabriel and I were the only two in the house. We got ready for bed, I said 'nigh-night' and walked him to his room. He was excited to get into his new bed and hopped right in. I sang a song, he started to tire and I left. About 2 seconds later he opened the door. I walked him back to bed and left. It took 10 seconds for him to come to the door. This time I stayed put and gently told him to go back to bed. He told me 'no' but reluctantly did it anyway. I waited outside his room (with my camera, of course) and 15 seconds later he was softly knocking on the door. He didn't wait for me to answer, and peeked out the crack in the door - which opening would get smaller each time he attempted to come out. This time when I told him to go to bed, he shut the door and stood next to it. Then without opening the door, he started with a whimper and it grew into a sad cry. I felt as though I held out long enough and went in to lay down next to him until he went to sleep.....

I realize this is an insanely lengthy post about Gabriel's big boy bed. I guess that maybe it's because, for me, it's bittersweet - bitter because he's my last baby and he's reached this milestone. Sweet... because my sweet boy has reached this latest milestone.