I’ve been totally promising ya’ll this post for awhile now, and it’s finally here! As all of you know, I’m a big Babywise 
Mom. I fully believe in every aspect of each of the books and follow their guidelines the best I can. Because of this, Kye has always been considered by others to be an excellent sleeper (to me, I think he struggles with naps but he still naps much better than typical non-babywise babies so I can’t complain!).
In true Babywise form, I believe in doing one major change at a time. The year from 2 – 3 is filled with many changes for a kid (potty training for most, getting rid of the pacifier, transitioning to big bed, meeting a new sibling…). Since Kye was day potty trained before he turned two, we decided the second big thing to mark off the list was the pacifier. I started that weaning process right after he turned two (on March 4th). Once we were done with that, we were ready for the big boy bed! I hosted Ashley’s Baby Shower on April 16th and wanted to at least have his bed set up for people to see it on that day.
We ordered his bed from Pottery Barn Kids (the Camp Collection) and it took a LONG time to come in. We went to Big Lots on April 10th to get him a mattress. We have our old twin mattresses from childhood and I didn’t mind using one of them for the top bunk. However, I wanted Kye to have NEW mattress for the bed he’d actually be sleeping in. Big Lots is the cheapest in town and it worked out great! While we were in the store they had a bunk bed set up so we made a HUGE spectacle about it and had him play on it etc. We kept telling him that he was going to get a big boy bed like that one soon and he was really excited.
When we got the mattress home Zach ran back out and it was nap time. I put him down and he BEGGED for the mattress. He did not want to sleep in his crib so that night I dragged the mattress in his room and found some random sheets. He was SO excited!
showing his friends their new bed
rolling and jumping and laughing like crazy!
here‘s a video of how much he loved his new bed
My original plan had been to wait until his actual bed arrived for him to sleep in it and we planned to leave the crib in his room for awhile to help him transition. Phh that went out the window! I was mildly worried about him falling off the mattress and getting scared and I did find him on the floor a few times. If I saw he was on the floor asleep (thanks video monitor!) I just went in and put him back on.
Most parents are concerned with their child getting out of the bed, I wasn’t too worried about that. Kye puts obedience above any other thought or desire. He is young enough where he obeys us simply because we tell him to, he doesn’t even know he has the choice to not obey (At least in majority of situations! He will test us at times, of course!) That night he got out of his “bed” once. I went right in the room and sternly told him to get back in bed. Then I re-tucked him and told him he’s not allowed out of the bed until Mommy or Daddy come and get him. That was it. We’ve NEVER had an issue with him getting out of the bed again.
He did NOT like having a real pillow in his bed and he also didn’t like having sheets on him!
sleeping happily!
A few days later the legit bed arrived. At first I bought some bed rails but then realized we didn’t need them with the system we bought him. I LOVE his bed and he does too!
First nap in his new bed, he did GREAT!
It took AGES for all the bedding to finally arrive (part of the reason I’ve taken so long to post this, I wanted to have a picture of the finished product!). We are doing a golf themed room (we plan to have an Open House in August when we have everything, hopefully, finished so I’ll be posting alllll the decoration details then!) and I got his sheets from Company Kids and bedding set from Pottery Barn Kids (Madras collection, I got it all for free because I earned Pottery Barn Coupons with the purchase of the bedroom set!)
We packed the ladder away in the attic for now 😉
I bought 3 sets of sheets (one for bottom bunk, one for top bunk, and an extra for when I wash Kye’s). I got each of the top sheets embroidered with his name but only did one pillow case because it seemed silly to spend the money on the extra sheet sets. Well the company took so long to get them to me that they did all the pillows for free! Score! (the white thing on the sheets is a protector in case he has an accident…more on nap/night potty training to come!)
It annoys me to DEATH when people tell me how lucky I get with things…yes, Kye potty trained very young but I worked my butt off to get him trained, it wasn’t luck! And yes, Kye has transitioned well with the paci, the bed, and even nap/night potty training. I’m not saying I’m mom of the year – but I did work hard for those milestones and it wasn’t all just dumb luck 🙂 I think timing with things is so critical and in this situation, I think building up the big bed and making it a HUGE deal really helped.
We could tell Kye was “ready” for the big boy bed transition because he was very into our bed. He loved playing on it, having pillow fights, reading stories, etc. He was alllll about it and we knew that he would be excited to have his own bed too. I don’t recommend moving to the big bed because of crib issues. Kye never tried to climb out or had any crib problems, but typically when parents move their child from the crib to the big bed to “solve” a crib problem it doesn’t seem to work. We waited until Kye was fully adjusted to life without the paci, when he was healthy (no sickness/teething/etc), and when he was ready. I think the correct timing allowed for such a smooth transition for him.
My kid loved his crib and he now loves his bed even more!!! I totally didn’t think that was possible but I love cuddling in his bed with him after naps and just being silly in it together. Since we did make a BIG deal about the transition, he made a BIG deal about it too. He showed his big boy bed to everyone, many people got the show more than once! He is so proud and it’s really precious!!! Here’s some more pictures of Kye enjoying his new big boy bed!
Here’s a video of him playing hardcore in his bed
“swinging” from the top bunk
Kye LOVES his “friends”
showing Mommy what you do when you go to bed
I’m very proud of Kye and he is excited for his little brother or sister to use his old crib now! We have it (and all his other baby furniture) set up in the nursery waiting on Blitzen to arrive.. He has asked to go in it a couple of times so I do put him in it (never to sleep, only during awake time) which is fine. We talk about how babies sleep in cribs and how it’s where our new baby will be sleeping. I think being pregnant has helped Kye in these transitions because we can make him feel special about being a “Big Boy” and talk about the baby and how the baby uses diapers/paci/crib etc. So thanks Blitzen 😉
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I love the bed and bedding… very cute. He's too cute 🙂
How precious!! LOVE all the pics of Kye in his big boy bed! What a little cutie pie! I seriously was laughing out loud looking at his excitement in the pictures! So glad he has transitioned so well for you!! 🙂 Happy 4th to you and your family!!
U r mom of the year!