The First Night in a Big Boy Bed!

Last night, Thursday, June 19, 2008, Joshua spent his first full night in his new big boy bed in his new bedroom. Hooray!

Yesterday he had played the entire day (almost literally) outside with Daddy as Daddy worked from home on his laptop. (Once again in the morning I started violently vomitting and had a severe headache, so I spent the day in bed until it was time to go to the doctor's. My blood pressure is good and the baby's heartbeat sounds okay, so they told me to take Tylenol and rest...easier said than done with a toddler. But, thankfully Shawn came to my rescue. I don't know what I'd do without him.)

I told Shawn I thought we needed a similar-but-somewhat-new routine to prepare Joshua for the transition to his new room. We started off with an earlier-than-normal (and much needed!) bath for Joshua (just look at his hair in the above picture!). Then I got out new (to us) PJ's for the Bean. Then instead of rocking him in the chair in the nursery as usual, I asked Joshua to pick out whatever book he would like to read together from his bin and bring it to me in the office rocking chair. We read "Peekaboo Zoo" where he lifts the flaps up, and then Joshua started climbing down to get another book. But, instead I told him it was time for prayers. We prayed and then I sang him a song or two. He was still awake and not quite understanding what was going on. Then I told him it was night-night time. When he headed for the nursery, I said he was going into his new bedroom tonight and acted excited, which made him excited, too. I layed him down on his bed, gave him his blankey and told him that I loved him and gave him a kiss goodnight. Surprisingly, he rolled over onto his blankey like he normally would have in his crib.

I tip-toed out of his room and closed the door behind me. Then I asked Shawn for predictions on how long it would take him to come out. But, we didn't hear a peep. Since neither one of us wanted to sleep quite yet - just to make sure Joshua was okay - we headed to the family room to quietly watch a movie. We came back upstairs and I peeked into his room, and Joshua was out! So, we shut all doors to the upstairs except for his and ours (he can open them, but we hoped if he got up we would hear the doors or he would first try to come into our room). Then, Shawn put up the baby gate to block off the bathroom and the stairs. I was still nervous - my little boy in that big bed!

Then...it happened. Shawn and I were quietly whispering in the dark around 11:30 pm when we heard...THUD! And then a wimper. Joshua had fallen out of bed. Shawn sprang out of bed and saw a cute little Bean trying to climb back into his big boy bed without success. So, he simply helped him back up and came back to bed. Joshua slept the whole night through until 6 am this morning with no more issues. Hooray!!! And, for his nap today, I put him back in there without him being asleep and he again grabbed his blankey and I haven't heard a peep. Hopefully we've turned the corner to him sleeping in his new room. I'm so thankful for our precious son! And, I'm thankful that God keeps an eye out for him in these new adventures.

Way to go, Joshua, on sleeping in a big boy bed!