Big Girl Bed

Anouk has been working on outgrowing her crib for a while. A few months ago, she learned to climb over the crib rail, which necessitated all sorts of baby-wrangling on our parts to keep her from falling and hurting herself, mainly involving an XL-size sleepsack, a hair elastic, and a little bit of luck. More recently, she started to show a definite preference for taking her naps in mine and James's bed. It happened so many times that finally, we gave in and ordered her a new big girl bed of her own. It was delivered over the weekend, and so we decided that Sunday night would be Anouk's last night in her crib.

I tried hard not to get teary as I tucked her into it for the last time. I have always promised myself that I won't let myself get too sentimental about Anne getting bigger. Milestones should be happy events, and I don't want to diminish her accomplishments by feeling sad about time passing. I don't want to miss the moment at hand because I'm too busy missing ones that came before.

I made myself make a mental list of all the positives about A. not sleeping in the crib anymore. It went like this:

• She will be more comfortable in the new bed (and thus maybe sleep a little longer in the mornings?) 
• We'll be able to snuggle. 
• Now we can work on potty training, which means eventually no more diapers. (Hooray!)
• I get to redecorate her room to match the big-girl comforter Anne picked out all on her own (I will NOT think about boxing up the little crib quilt I chose before she was born.)

Monday afternoon we put together the bed and loaded the mattress onto it, carefully chosen and tested to ensure it was not too firm, not too soft, but just right. Monday night, we went through our usual bedtime routine and tucked A. into the new bed nice and snug. J. and I spent a long time making sure that she had everything she needed (night light, sippy cup, cat) and then we turned out the lights and closed the door. It took a few false starts, a couple of serious talks in the light of the ladybug lamp, but before we knew it, Anne was sleeping peacefully in the new bed, as though she'd been doing it for months. 

I stuck my head in a couple of times before my own bedtime to make sure she was doing OK. And you know what? In that great big bed, with the duvet pulled up over her, she looked so small. As small as she looked the time we put all five pounds of her in her crib for the very first time. Not so big, actually, after all. Not too big, not too small -- but just right.