Big Girl Bed: Day 3

Today is Sunday and this is Raegan's third night in her "big girl bed".  The first night went better than I ever imagined it would go.  She stayed asleep and in her bed all night long!  You can read more about what led up to the big girl bed switch here. Night two went a little quicker, she was still reluctant to go upstairs, but she settled in once we got there.  She fell asleep in minutes and I was able to creep out.  She did wake up around 5:45am though.  i heard her cry and when I pulled her up on the monitor, she was getting out of bed and kept saying "blanky" because she had dropped it out of her bed.  She got up, grabbed her blanky and went to the door saying "mommy...mommy read book" and even grabbed a book from her bookshelf. (Insert broken mama heart here!) And just when I had decided I should probably go in and put her back to bed, she dropped the book, walked to her bed, crawled in and snuggled up in her cozy corner.  She laid there for about 20 minutes or so and fell back to sleep.  All on her own!!  I couldn't have been more proud of my sweet girl.  She woke up this morning at about 8:15.  She slid out of bed and walked to the door.  My husband and I raced upstairs and opened her door quietly.  She was standing there with a huge grin on her face and she ran into our happy, open arms.  Tonight she went to bed a few minutes early and fell asleep even faster than last night.  She has continued to totally blow us away with how easily she is transitioning into her new routine.

I should also mention that with this new bed, bedtime, sleep routine we have not been giving her a nap during the day.  Naps have gotten harder and harder for her lately and it seems that on the days she was napping well, she was sleeping horribly at night.  So yesterday and today we decided to not make her nap, but that if she told us she was tired, we would give her the chance to sleep.  She did not act tired at all during the day yesterday or today.  Although today we brought her home in the car and she fell asleep for about 10 minutes.   We were beginning to wonder if she was phasing out of naps before we switched her bed anyway, and we didn't want to make her new bed anymore traumatic on her than it had to be.  Since she has been crying for 30+ minutes at naptime lately, we decided we didn't want to risk her associating her new bed with a horrible experience.  I also think it is helping with bedtime; since she is so exhausted from the whole day, she falls asleep almost instantly at night. So it is still a work in progress and I'm sure she will fall into a new routine and maybe need a nap sometimes, but for now, this seems to be working for us.  And can I just say that, in the two days that we have not made her take a nap, she has been in better spirits and on better behavior than she has in quite a while.  She is throwing less fits, she is playing on her own even better than before, and she is just acting more content and happy in general.  Coincidence?? I'm not sure.  But I plan to find out....

This is our sweet little nugget all conked out in her "new" bed :)