“Daddy I stayed in my big boy bed all night long. I like it!”
Let’s just say that’s not what I expected the morning after we finally moved Adam out of his crib and into a toddler bed. He had pushed back for months about moving to a bed. And it’s likely that as soon as this column publishes, I may have jinxed the whole thing by even talking about it. But the transition has been smoother than expected this time around.
Adam always had a twin bed in his room in addition to the crib because he was in the “baby room.” But when it was time to move Brandon, we not only moved him from the crib to a bed, we switched his room entirely. Sarah was pregnant and we needed the crib. So Brandon went into his new room, and in came baby Adam. At first, Brandon kept coming out of his new room regularly after his bedtime was over. That was, until we created a ticket system, giving him only limited chances to leave the room once he was tucked in.
We knew it was time to move Adam when a few weeks earlier, he started showing us how he could push himself up over the side of the crib and lift his leg over even while he was wearing a swaddle. But we didn’t know what to expect. Adam’s always been the child to find his way out or call you back into his room to try to get more attention. And we had tried to move him to the twin bed once before, changing the bedding to something appealing to him, moving his stuffed animals over and putting up guardrails. He just wasn’t into it.
Finally, we decided that maybe if we got some buy-in from Adam, and swapped the crib for a toddler bed, closer to the floor, maybe that would be better. We found two options, showed Adam, and he instantly got excited. He made his choice and immediately wanted to know how quickly his new bed would arrive and how fast he could move into it. Once the box came to the doorstep, he wanted me to assemble it immediately. Sarah even ensured there was a matching blanket. After putting everything together we realized it was time to take apart the crib and make adjustments to the room to make it “Adam ready”.
Separate from the actual process of changing Adam’s room over, which took time, there was something emotional about moving him from a crib to a bed. I didn’t realize there would be even more emotion involved when doing it for the last time until we were taking the crib down and moving it out of the room. Sarah was more struck by moving the physical crib out than I was for some reason. I was more focused on what the crib meant to me. Maybe it was I knew Adam was safe when he was in it, or at least I felt like he was when he had the four sides of the crib keeping him in. I realized as I took the pieces of the disassembled crib out of the room, Adam was now far more independent. He can get out on his own and go wherever he wants, whenever he wants, no matter what I say (which I guess is only more preparation for what is to come). But Sarah was more emotional about the fact that the room was changing from a baby room to a little boy’s room. With the crib missing, it just looked emptier, and that was hard.
Once the crib was gone and the toddler bed was moved in, Adam couldn’t wait to help make it. He put his stuffed animal friends on his new blanket making sure to very neatly assemble everything. Sarah and I looked at each other knowing this was the right move to make, no matter what our emotions told us.
Even though we were relieved it all worked out, I know this won’t be the last time we go through getting all the feels because our children have taken another step toward growing up. In the meantime, let’s just hope Adam stays in his bed while we wait for the next milestone to hit.
Read More “Making Time” by Jason Springer
