We moved G to his new room on Friday night. Overall, it went surprisingly well.
Our evening started as we prepped G for bed-time, telling him that he would sleep in his new BIG boy room and his new BIG boy bed. He’s been in the room many times before as we’ve been building it out, and played on the new bed before, so thankfully it wasn’t like opening the door to a completely new space and saying “This is where you’ll be living from now on!” But it broke my heart when he saw his Nubs and his blanket on the new bed; ran over, grabbed them and then took them back to the nursery to put them in the crib. At that moment I panicked on the inside thinking “Holy cow! Why did I think such a big change would work? This is painfully going to suck!”
But it kind of worked out. He climbed out of his bed 3-4 times the first night, and I put him back each time. He ultimately got the message and crashed out. I think it helped that it was a bit past his bed-time already and he was pretty tired. That plus the fact that at daycare they sleep on cots on the floor, so he’s familiar with “I can get up and walk away” etiquette.
I checked up on him at 4:00am the first night, and he was sleeping soundly. He woke up at 6, though, by yelling for me at his door (where we had put a gate up).
Nap time yesterday also went fine. He was pretty tired from running around the park. He went down and stayed down. Today’s nap-time wasn’t as fortunate. It was a massive fail, and he didn’t take a nap at all. I don’t think it had anything to do with the new space though: he just wasn’t tired.
Last night he fell out of bed, and kept sleeping. It was kind of humorous actually. He stirred when S picked him up and put him back in bed. We made it a point to NOT put the slats on the bed, so the mattress is straight on the floor, surrounded by the bed frame. Our hope was that the bed frame would keep him from falling. Clearly, we were wrong. We’re still not going to get a bed rail, because let’s face it: we’d have to surround the whole bed with them, and I’m more worried about G tripping over the rail when being the crazy dude he is, vs. rolling 10″ onto the floor. We will put down a few pillows under it though.
One bonus? I can FINALLY lie in bed with him, if I needed to. There have been so many nights that I wanted to sleep in his bed with him rather than bringing him in bed with us. Obviously the crib wasn’t going to let that happen, and there are only so many hours that our glider chair was comfortable for. For now, no mommy cuddles because I need a wedge to get out of a bed that low to the ground, but it’s good to know that come baby brother debut, it would (hopefully) be easier.
Before I leave, here are some pics of the room, per popular demand. We’re not “done” with it yet, but at this point it’s certainly usable. I really wanted the room to be gray and orange with white accents. Instead it’s gray and white with orange accents. I’m surprised that with orange being such a popular color, how hard it is to find affordable orange bedding. I’m not looking for anything fancy, but I also refuse to spend $150 on a bedding set that I know my kid at some point will yak all over. It’s just going to happen. We did find a set at Bed, Bath & Beyond for a very affordable price, but the orange and gray kind of clash with our colors. So we’re still search for the “right” set. Equally hard to find has been orange fabric to create a chair cover for the rocker. Lastly, I want to disguise the guest bed, so that the cherry wood doesn’t stand out so terribly. I refuse to paint it, so I’m considering a fabric cap. Ideally the fabric will be grippy, so we can do velcro animals, flowers and letters on it: use it as a big art board in a way. Anyway, here goes; and YES, it does look like we robbed IKEA.
Malm twin bed and dresser. Letters from Woodland Manufacturing (brought over from the nursery), and the animals were purchased from Etsy (lion & giraffe from XpressionsThatStick and the elephant from ModernDecals). Diaper pail & trash can courtesy of Costco.
Poang rocking chair and stool, and Besta bookshelf, turned sideways. You guessed it, IKEA.
Growth chart from Etsy (seller singlestonestudios)
While this room served as our office, we put in Pax shelves rather than getting bookshelves or looking into custom cabinet solutions. What we did in the nursery (way before it was a nursery, and served as our bedroom) was awesome; but it’s also a little pricey. Pax wardrobes, on the other hand, do an excellent job for a fraction of the cost. Now that this closet has reclaimed its identity, we adapted to G’s needs. In a way, having lived in the other room for the past 2 years, has given me an idea of what I want in the dresser, and what I want in the closet.
By the way, you think he has enough shirts? 2/3 of his closet is courtesy of my local mother’s club. The rest were gifts. You’re looking at the equivalent of $75 of my personal spending (excluding the shoes & socks).
When we get to it really being finished, finished, I’ll do another update.
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Raising Toddler | 
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