Baxter's in a big boy bed!

Okay, so I don't have any pictures to show you yet, but last night Baxter slept in a big boy bed for the first time! We had not been planning on moving him yet, because quite frankly I wasn't sure how well he would stay in it.

But then he started having sleep problems. If you are my friend on Facebook, you have seen MULTIPLE complaints about his irregular sleep patterns (sorry about that!). He doesn't appear to be sick, has no other problems during the day, and yet he has been waking up multiple times in the middle of the night and cutting his naps short. After much prayer and discussion, Nathan and I came to the conclusion that Baxter seems to be just seeking our attention. Whenever he wakes up in the middle of the night, he quiets down as soon as we comfort him/hug him/whatever. We knew that if he were sleeping in a 'real' bed, and getting up in the middle of the night or playing with his toys or trying to leave his room, he would be disobeying our instructions and would need to be disciplined for such behavior. But because he was in a crib, and was just 'fussing' for attention, the fact that he was disobeying our instructions (to go to bed and to be quiet) was unclear.

So we made the decision to move him to a big boy bed. Please know that I don't think sleeping in a crib was giving him problems (or at least it is nothing that I can prove or even care to prove). Baxter is two years old now, though, and he needs to understand and obey our instructions about sleeping and being quiet during rest times both during the day and at night. We thought giving him a 'big boy bed' would give him more responsibility to stay in the bed and behave as we have instructed him. Basically, we were trying to raise our expectations of him! When Georgia was his age, Baxter was already here and she had transitioned to being 'big sister' very well. We have not bothered with big brother type training for Baxter, but it is time to give him more responsibility and to treat him like the toddler he is--and not like a baby anymore (sniff!).

We bought a bunk bed set yesterday for a great price, and Nathan put together the bed (just one bed, but we are using the top bunk with the rails right now). Baxter slept in the bed last night, and he loves it! He talks about his 'big boy bed', he slept through the night for over twelve hours last night, and this evening he got into the bed on his own, covered himself with his blanket and was ready for 'night-night' without any help from us! He even napped well in the bed today, on a Sunday!

This may not be the cure-all for his sleep problems. However, it is working well for Baxter at this point, and Nathan and I are very pleased that we went ahead with this purchase and change BEFORE the baby comes. I promise to post pictures of the big boy bed very soon!