Transition Time!

On Monday afternoon, after I mentioned that Ben was getting pretty close to jumping out of his crib that morning, Justin went in to get him after his nap and found him even closer to jumping out of his crib.  He was holding onto that bar that you can see on along the back in the pictures below with both feet hooked on to the railing.  That evening, we took down the railing and converted the crib to its toddler bed format for the time being to avoid any injury. 

I remember when the youngest of the three boys I used to babysit started jumping out of his crib.  His parents warned me it might happen, and ten minutes after I put them to bed I heard a noise upstairs and went to investigate and discovered little J standing in the hallway.  It made me laugh to imagine him climbing out and getting loose and thinking he was pulling off a trick or something.  Haha...yeah...so funny...now I know better. 

The nights have been a smooth transition.  He got up and opened the door once on Monday night and came out to find us so we put up a baby gate in his doorway and after a suggestion from a Facebook friend Justin turned the lock on his door to the outside.  He stayed in his bed watching the projection from his soothing sound machine on the ceiling and was soon sleeping.  Last night was the same. 

 

Here he is on Tuesday morning after his first big boy night!  He likes to play on the bed and say "night night".

 

Then came the first daytime nap.  I knew this wouldn't be as easy.  I know he still needs a nap and I NEED him to take a nap.  So I went through the whole routine and gave him his after lunch milk and laid him down and he immediately bounced up and ran for the door.  What followed was two hours of behind closed door activity, most of which I have no idea about except that the contents of his drawers were strewn around the room.  Eventually, after a few minutes of quiet I opened the door to find him like this:

 

You can't see it but in his right hand he was clutching a bottle of baby Tylenol.  I have no idea where it came from.  It had to have been in one of the dresser drawers (which he dug through and messed up). 

 

It is now day two of napping in the bed.  He has been in the room for about an hour and I just muted the TV and it sounds quiet.  It's too soon to tell though!

 

We weren't quite ready for this.  We were going to keep him in the crib for a few months after the baby comes and have the baby in the bassinette and then decide if he was ready for a bed or if we needed to buy another crib.  I think now we plan on getting a twin mattress an starting with it on the floor and eventually setting it up with Justin's old bedroom set from childhood. Toddler beds are pretty cheap but they use a crib mattress and who need extras of those laying around? We will have to get him some fun sheets with something he likes on them like tractors or puppies or something.  Maybe that will make him want to lay on them.

 

Update from the last few minutes:  

 

He crashed on the floor, this time clutching a ball.  We need to get the toys out of the room I think!

 

 

Don't worry...I don't leave him laying on the floor for the entirety of his nap.  He is now tucked under a blanket on the bed.  So...two hours the first afternoon, one hour the second...what will tomorrow bring?