The Big Girl Bed - update
The second night we tried the toddler bed, MM had quite the meltdown. She came to the door three times, sobbing, and only got into bed after I reassured her that she was a good girl for giving it a try. In the morning she woke up, discovered she was in the bed, got hysterical, came to the door, discovered the gate, and really got hysterical.
I decided to move her back to the crib that night.
The next morning, I discovered her hanging from the outside of the crib railing yelling “Heeeelp!” and we moved back to the toddler bed in the evening.
She started going down well enough (if a little tearfully), with many reassurances that she was doing a very good job, but morning was still kind of traumatic.
Last night, she actually got into bed without much coercion, no tears, and woke up (this is the important part) in a good mood without hysterics. She called out to me, near tears, at about 6 am, I called back to her, told her to play with her toys or read her books, and she did - until about 7!!
Mommy was a happy camper. Toddler seems much more mellow this morning. All in all, a good night/morning.
We also took her to a local private zoo yesterday, on Kim’s recommendation. MM discovered that she really doesn’t like goats, sheep, or geese in person (I’m with her here - I’m not crazy about belligerent animals, myself), but she really, really liked seeing the ostriches, camel, chickens, bunnies, and horsies. The chickens, in particular, made a big impression.
The one drawback was that this place consists mainly of gravel paths, which renders M.’s scooter essentially useless. He tried to make it down one path, got stuck, and it took me and another woman to drag the scooter over to a grassy area so he could ride it back to the pavement. I wonder what the rationale for the gravel is…?
June 25th, 2007 at 9:11 am
I’m glad things are going better with the big-girl bed. The transition to the big girl bed did not go easily for us. I let Bella sleep on a mattress on the floor for a long time.
The zoo sounds like fun. But yeah, goats and geese can be very aggressive. I took Bella to a petting zoo once and the goats kept chewing on our clothes. She was terrified.
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June 25th, 2007 at 10:23 am
We’ve actually got a hand-me-down Dora toddler bed, so it’s not as traumatic as a real big girl bed, I guess. But I’m with you; if it got to be too much, we’d just put the mattress on the floor.
I hate geese - really hate ‘em.
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June 25th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Glad you enjoyed the zoo, but it stinks that M had such a difficult time getting around… I’d never really thought about it but I always leave the stroller in the car because of all that gravel. One of Em’s friends showed her that you can *play* with big handfuls of gravel and that’s been my misery ever since. HelLO, do you see all the goose poop?! Thank goodness for wipes, wipes and more wipes! Next time you trek so far out into the burbs, let me know!
Keep us posted on those big girl sagas - we’re going to move Emmy over in a few months…
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June 26th, 2007 at 6:11 am
Yep, we made a stop at every Purell station they had there! I noticed that strollers were having the same difficulty; with so many small children visiting, I wonder why they keep the gravel? (I’m sure there’s a reason - financial or otherwise…). But we had a good time, and even M. was able to get around after a fashion.
The bed thing goes in fits and starts - she’s getting much better at the nighttime/waking up routine, but naps are still very much in the crib. So far, the thing that seems to be helping the most is that we already had an iron-clad bedtime routine to just plug the bed into…
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