The Big Girl Bed Story and other random topics

The Big Girl Bed Story

So last Friday we took Marissa's crib out of her room. Not sure why we picked then, it just seemed like it was time. And she had been getting her foot pretty high up about to climb out her crib, and I wanted to get her out of there before that happened! So after reading many stories of the "big kid bed" switch, I had decided that I just wanted to start her on her crib mattress, just on the floor instead. So we took the crib out (and stuffed it into our bedroom, still assembled, because we will put it in the guest room once my sis moves out next week), moved the changing table into our huge hallway (she climbs up it on her own - scary - and it fits in a square corner part of the hallway perfectly), and moved the rocker/glider into our bedroom (yeah, it's packed in our room right now!). Her bedroom is actually quite large, but since my sister's twin bed is in there, along with the mattresses for Marissa's future twin bed, it was so tight in there. But now she has tons of floor space, and can actually play in there. Anyways, I took everything she uses out of her crib, and put it all back together the same way, just on the floor. She sleeps with a baby, a blanket (actually it's a washcloth now, since it's way too hot for an actual blanket but she insisted she needed one), and a cup of water. So for 2-3 days before this, we talked about her getting to sleep in a "big girl bed, just like mommy and daddy, and Ra-ra" (my sis). By the time we got everything set up properly in and out of her room, and I vacuumed and cleaned it up quite a bit, it was 9pm, an hour past her bedtime. Great start, huh? Lol. So we got her all ready for bed, and she walked over to her bed, and laid down with her head on the pillow, asked for her blanket on her back, and that was that! We closed all the upstairs rooms (child-proof doorknobs) and closed the gate at the top of the stairs. And then we listened on the monitor. And she babbled for a bit, and went straight to sleep!


Every night since, we have peeked in on her before we go to bed, and a few times have found her asleep on the floor across the room. Lol. But she has not given us one ounce of trouble about sleeping on her bed!

One of the shocking things about this whole story is how she got on her bed. For months now, ever since she decided she required a pillow in her crib, she has slept with her head on the opposite side of the crib from the pillow. But she won't let me take it out. She puts her feet right near the edge of it, and that's how she sleeps. But all of a sudden, when put in a "big girl bed" situation, she realized she was supposed to put her head on the pillow! We never talked about it or anything, but she just realized that's what big people do!

The other, most shocking thing, is that she stays in her bed til someone comes to get her. We expected the worst those first Saturday and Sunday mornings. But she actually slept late (8:30 and 9) and once she started talking to herself, she waited for someone to get her "out"! Then yesterday, she was kinda upset in the morning so she stayed home with me (more on that later). I put her down for her regular naptime in the afternoon while I watched a movie. Towards the end of it, I heard her talking a little, but she was still mostly quiet so I thought I'd wait a little while. Well, a while later, she was still only making tiny noises every once in a while, so I decided it was time for me to take a shower (yes, I'm lazy when I stay home). So I secured the upstairs in case she decided to explore, and took my shower. By the time I got out of the shower, it was an hour past the first time I heard her talking. Once I got dressed, I went into her room and she was STILL talking quietly on her bed. But the second she saw me, she bounced up and ran to greet me with a huge happy hug!

She rolls off her mattress sometimes, or her legs dangle off the edge, but it doesn't wake her up at all. I can't believe how easy this transition was. I don't expect it to stay this easy forever, but I guess we may be surprised. She has always been an awesome sleeper (well, since about 16, 17, or 18 months - I think - when I laid down the law!) and I was worried this would mess that up. But she still goes to bed happy at 8pm, stays in bed, doesn't cry, doesn't ever wake up in the night, and sleeps til at least 7:30 most days.

Once my sister moves out of our guest room (she's going back to college in VA), we will figure out what we're going to do with all the beds and mattresses we have around here. Then we will give Marissa a regular twin bed in her room. But after this "huge" transition, I'm not too worried about another!

Me, Rissa, Rach, and work

In other news...I'm SO VERY HAPPY to report that I'm finally starting to feel better! This has been the LONGEST month of my life. I think I said before, but I felt so awful and nauseas on vacation with my family, that when we came back, I knew I couldn't keep working my nanny job while I felt so miserable. Fortunately, my sister was planning on quitting her job soon to move to VA for school, so she just quite a little sooner, and took over my job! She even took Marissa, mainly because Marissa and the boy, H, were such good buddies and H's mom didn't want him to lose his friend. It was the hardest thing to watch Rissa go off everyday without me. I'd never done that before, but I'm glad it happened because I needed it. I also put myself on bedrest/couch rest just to be safe because I have been so nervous about everything. So I literally laid on the couch for a month. Dan and Rach were sooo extremely helpful. I didn't do any dishes, make any meals, change any diapers, clean anything, or do any laundry. I felt so awful, and even threw up a few times. It was so great to have all that help, but at the same time it was SO FRUSTRATING because I like things done a certain way and that wasn't happening. Lol. I was not a nice person to live with, I'll admit it. But this week I'm feeling better, and have started doing all those fun things again. Lol.

So between me sitting around all the time doing nothing, and my sister taking Marissa with her every day of the week, most of the time all day, Marissa has had some moments. Poor girl. She has done extraordinarily well with all this upheaval, but we could tell it was wearing on her. One day last week, we decided she would stay home with me, and it made a huge difference in her behavior the next few days. Then yesterday, I woke up hearing a huge meltdown before they left for work. Rach brought Rissa into my room, and she was crying so hard we could barely understand what she was saying. We finally were able to make out two sentences: "I want to stay home with mommy. I want to eat lunch at Frissa's house." (I just love how she says her own name - makes me smile every time!) Poor girl! It made me so sad, so of course she stayed home with mommy. Other than that, she has loved still getting to see H (2 yrs) and M (1 yr) with Aunt Ra-ra.

I was so glad this all worked out. Rach will be working a few more days next week, and then I'll go back to my normal hours there (9am-1pm) with Marissa. I still don't have much of an appetite, but I don't feel like I'm on the edge of my seat ready to run to the bathroom every 5 seconds. I lost 8-9lbs this month. But I know the way I eat (when I feel good) that I won't have a problem putting on the proper pregnancy weight!

Family Vacation July 2008

This seems like old news, but I want to at least have it recorded on here. The last week of June through the 4th of July, we went to Salt Fork State Park and met my parents and brother there (Rach came at the end because she couldn't get the whole week off work). We stayed in a cabin on the lake all week. It really was fun, but would have been much more enjoyable if I had felt like a human being. My parents brought their kayak, there was a hot tub in the cabin, and a huge pool at the lodge. It was a really neat place. Marissa loved riding in the kayak with her life jacket on (I forget already how she said life jacket, but it was cute). She wasn't a huge fan of the pool, unless Daddy and Grandpa were throwing her back and forth high up in the air and terrifying Mommy. But she loved spending time with "Mum" (grandma), "Poppa" (grandpa), and Jeff (which she finally says right instead of "Jep"). On top of "ALL DAY sickness" I managed to burn my legs, thighs, neck, and chest horrifically bad on one of the first days, so that made me feel even better In fact, my legs have been peeling from that sunburn all month til last week! We saw some cool fireworks at a nearby small town, and Marissa fell in love with them! For the longest time after vacation was over, she kept asking for more fireworks! The only part she didn't like was the finale - she covered her ears and buried her face in my shirt. She really did so well the whole vacation. She napped great, and went to bed great. Since there wasn't a full extra room for her sleep in (and none of us sleep well when we're in the same room - remember Christmas in Georgia and Dan driving around all night to keep her sleeping? UGH!), we put her to bed in our room in the pack-n-play. Then when we went to bed, I picked her up, Dan moved the pack-n-play into the living room, and she went right back to sleep! It rained a few days there, but we still had some really nice days.

Guess that's all finally. I should be able to post more often now that I feel better. 11 weeks, 3 days. Starting to see some hope!