Big Girl Bed

Friday night, while getting ready for bed, Catherine hiked her leg over the rail of her crib, said ready, set, go!, and climbed right out like she'd been doing it for months.

Uh Oh.

So, Saturday, we made a little trip to Buy Buy Baby for a toddler bed rail; and last night, I installed it while she "helped" by pretending parts were musical instruments and by jumping on the mattress in the middle of her room.

A couple last pics in her crib

We talked all day about how special this new bed is and what a big girl she is. She was genuinely so excited about it. After I removed the foot board,  I hadn't even installed the bed rail yet before she was in the bed.

In hind sight, I probably should have waited for Husband to come home from work and help me (that foot board is heavy); but I'm stubborn and I wanted it done last night, so instead, C learned how to use an allen wrench.

She climbed right in once everything was finished. I had to pry her out to put on pajamas (she refused to take a bath); and we snuggled to read a couple books she had chosen.

She picked Love You Forever (she calls it Back and Forth). It's like she wanted to make me cry. So, I read a tear jerking story about growing up and then my big girl climbed into her bed all by herself and went to sleep.

I watched her on the monitor until she was really asleep, then cracked her door open and left ours open as well.

I slept terribly. I woke up every hour and checked on her. I knew the gate at the top of the stairs was locked. I knew I had closed all doors besides hers and ours; but I was so worried she would wake up and feel scared walking in the dark or not know she could get out. 

Clearly, my worrying was for nothing, because at 6:30, I heard the pitter patter of little feet run into our room and felt little eyes staring at me on my side of the bed.

Big girl bed success!