Big Changes

Ellinor is officially a big girl! She has fully transitioned into a 'big girl' bed as of last night. I am ridiculously emotional about this change. Last night I was a bucket of tears and snot (very glamorous, you know). But I digress - I should start from the beginning.

Almost 2 weeks ago now we left for a quick trip to Redding, CA to visit Bryan's parents (Barry and Lyne). They had kindly set up a beautiful guest room for us to stay in at their home, complete with adorable toddler bed for little Miss Ellinor. I had been told prior to the trip that they had a bed for her instead of the crib we used last time. I was nervous. I told Bryan that this would probably mess with her sleeping habits because she had always been in a crib (and she is normally such an amazing sleeper that I would defend her schedule/habits to the death. haha) but when in Rome... :) While in Redding Ellinor did alright with the bed - she loved it, but wouldn't stay in it for long at all. And wasn't too keen on napping. I was hoping this was just a combination of the excitement of being at Grandma and Grandpa's house and the fact that Bry and I were sleeping in the same room as her. Why sleep in your own bed when you can crawl into mom and dad's so easily?

I didn't think much of it when we headed back home and Ellinor crashed per usual in her crib our first night back in UT. Undoubtedly due to utter exhaustion from 5 days of vacationing. And then it started - the next night brought on bloody murder screaming when we put her in the crib. And I am not exaggerating AT ALL. She just absolutely refused to be put back in her prison cell (or so it seemed to her). Oh man - I was panicked. These days I am so exhausted by bed time that the idea of fighting with my almost 2 year old was the least appealing thing in the world. We tried cry it out, soothing her every 10 minutes or so, rocking her and singing until she passed out. There were many moments when Ellinor was fast asleep on us but woke up angrily when we approached the crib. It was her 6th sense. We finally broke down on the 2nd night of this drama and removed her crib mattress from the frame and made Ellinor a bed on the floor. She didn't scream when placed on this, but then we had the perpetual chasing game every time she ran out of her room.

Needless to say it was a long few nights. We brainstormed and guessed that the crib mattress on the floor felt too much like a game, versus her bed. So we took the front frame off the crib, put the mattress back on and made a makeshift toddler bed. This went over much better with little miss. We still had a few back and forth escapes but it only lasted about 35-40 minutes this time around. And so we were content with this sleeping arrangement for a couple of days. Nap time was a different story - I had to allow her to fall asleep in my bed and then move her.

 I make this sound so dramatic, but really Ellinor is a champ. We only had a couple of days where I was at my wits end (and even then, the horror story was nothing compared to what I hear from some parents). I called my parents on Sunday night and asked for the magic secret. They laughed and wished us all the best. :) LOL. But after those couple of days Ellinor started doing really well. Eventually I got her to nap in her own bed, falling asleep in it from the beginning - sure it took about 1.5 hours to get there but I counted it as successful. 

Finally Bryan and I decided to just skip using a toddler bed set up and go right to the twin bed. We didn't want to deal with another transition in a few months. With baby sister coming soon it will be plenty of change already. We took Ellinor shopping for some fun bedding, which she was very excited about. She oohed and aahed for a bit and seemed happy with the choice. Last night Bry picked up the mattress and frame on his way home from work and the excitement began. Ellinor was her usual helpful self and insisted on building the frame with Bryan - causing him to work extra hard to miss little fingers. :) She also pranced around on the mattress for awhile and immediately tested out it's capacity for jumping on it. I believe it passed with flying colors!

Don't mind her outfit - she wanted to wear her high heels which apparently required removing her PJs :)

Ellinor helped us set up the bed in her room, get all her new bedding on it - she even insisted on throwing a purple stuffed bear up there for good measure. SHE LOOKS SO TINY on the big girl bed. I about lost it! She's still my baby - how can she be in such a big bed?! We did our usual bed routine, tucked her in and I settled down by her to sing and help her to fall asleep. I couldn't even get through Itsy-Bitsy Spider without crying. She started doing all the motions with me and I was completely overcome with how quickly my little 3.7 pound infant has turned into this beautiful, tenacious, smart  toddler. It has just flown by too quickly. I'm not ready to think of her as the BIG kid yet - as much as I love watching her grow and learn I equally miss holding my first little baby.

Our tiny BIG girl

Trying it out

Reading a bedtime story to Daddy

I'm sure Bryan thought I'd lost it completely - I was leaking mascara down my face, puffing up like nobody's business and had to lock myself in the bathroom to clean up all the uncontrollable snot. Total ugly crying. But I'm good now - and happy to report that Ellinor did AMAZING last night. We only worked for about 35 minutes to finally get her to stay in bed and fall asleep and she didn't make an appearance in our room until 6am. She usually just runs in and stands by one of our sides - looking at us but not making any noise. It's kind of adorable. LoL. We missed her so much by then so I pulled her into bed at this morning's wake up call and let her finish the night with us.

We are excited that this transition is going so smoothly - thankfully! Because I couldn't have handled it any other way, I'm sure of it. We truly are blessed with the perfect little darling - as perfect as a toddler can be. ;)