The Big Girl Bed

Back in October, we bought Molly a Big Girl Bed. We thought it would be easier to move her to a twin bed before Maggie came. Molly however had different ideas. She thought the new bed was awesome for jumping, reading books and pretending to sleep in. For real sleep, she still preferred the crib. I made some half-hearted attempts to get her to nap in the big girl bed but they all failed.

Then in December, we decided to just wait. We knew that Maggie would be sleeping in our room for at least six months and honestly I was too pregnant to deal with moving Molly.

Last week though, we decided it was time. Scott is on paternity leave until the end of the month and then he heads back to work. We thought it would be best to make the move while everyone is at home and capable of naps rather than waiting until Scott was back at work and I was on my own. 

We decided to start with naps. We moved her to the big girl bed for naps and said, no more crib. The first day, Scott laid in the bed with her after reading a few books until she fell asleep. On the second day, Scott sat in a chair next to her bed until she fell asleep. She ended up dancing in the hallway once he left the room while yelling Mommy! Mommy! On the third day, I was at an appointment with Maggie so Scott was on his own. He tried for an hour to get Molly to go to sleep and then decided to just leave the room. He closed her door and left. She cried for 5 minutes and then fell asleep. She slept for almost two hours. Success! On the fourth day, I was left in charge of naps as Scott had an appointment. Maggie ended up being hungry at the same time as nap so I put Molly in the bed, kissed her on the head and said, Have a good nap! Again, she cried for a few minutes and then fell asleep. 

That night, we asked her if she wanted to sleep in Maggie's crib or in Molly's bed. She said Molly's bed and climbed into it. We held our breathe and kissed her goodnight before closing the door. She cried for a few minutes (notice a theme?) and then fell asleep. She's been sleeping in her big girl bed ever since then. She points to the crib and calls it, "Maggie's Crib!" and proudly points to her bed while saying, "Molly's Bed!" It may have taken 4 months but in the end, the move to the Big Girl Bed was easy. I think Molly needed some time to get used to the idea of the new bed and when the time was right, made her move.