WARNING!!! If you do not like boring sentimental posts then STOP READING, this post is not for you.
Tonight Serena switched from her crib to her "big girl bed", and although I am not in tears crying about how big my baby is getting and what not I am thinking a lot about how crazy it is that she is no longer sleeping in her little crib. I wasn't going to switch her to a toddler bed until we move in a couple of months (you know just make the big switch the same time we move...) but as of yesterday I decided her safety was at stake.
You see Serena normally wakes up around 8:00, about the same time Westin is getting ready for work, but yesterday at around 7:15 I heard her all of a sudden start to cry in her room. I listened for a minute and she calmed down and I figured she had gone back to sleep. I had almost fallen back asleep myself when I heard her bedroom door open and here comes this little girl looking for someone to play with her. Thats right, she CLIMBED OUT OF HER CRIB!!!
So today we spent a good portion of the day re-arranging her room and switching her crib to a bed. It was so fun to see her excitement when she first came into the room and there was no longer a crib, just a bed she could climb up on. She immediately went over to it, grabbed her blanket, and laid her head down (she of course had a huge smile on her face).
I was really nervous about how she would fall asleep in it, and we probably would have been just fine if I hadn't peeked in on her. Night time came and we did our normal bed-time routine, we came downstairs and I laid her in her "big girl bed" said night, night and left. I didn't hear anything for about 10 minutes so I thought I would just peek in on her (WRONG MOVE!!!!), she wasn't quite asleep yet, although she was still in her bed. So I thought I would just shut the door and come back down in a couple more minutes to check on her. I went upstairs to finish up some things and all of a sudden here comes this little Serena. She had the biggest eye's and smile on, you could tell she was so excited that she just escaped going to sleep.
To keep this story from getting too long and boring, I'll say this about the next two hours, they included MUCH climbing out of bed, tantrums, playing, throwing up, bubble baths, and cuddling. She eventually fell asleep in my arms and I laid her in her bed without any problems. We'll see what happens when she wakes up tomorrow (hopefully she won't roll out of bed in the middle of the night). I don't think the next couple of nights will be quite as hard, but we'll see. I did enjoy cuddling with her tonight, it's not something she does very often any more.
(Here is a picture from Ikea's website of Serena's crib turned toddler bed)