The Big Boy Chronicles: The Big Boy Bed

As promised, I wanted to share how incredibly proud I am of Zane with his flawless transition to the big boy bed last week!

Tommy's been wanting to get him out of the crib for several months because he would occasionally act like he wanted to try to climb out. I was more hesitant. I just knew that putting him in a bed meant that I could no longer ensure that he would stay in bed when I wanted him there, regardless of how he felt about it.

With Taryn on her way, we knew it was time. I wanted to do it far enough ahead of time that he didn't think the baby took "his" bed. Our crib converts to a toddler bed but this didn't make any sense since we need the crib for the baby. We decided to skip the toddler bed and just spend our money on a twin bed that he can stay in long term. We figured we could start with the mattresses on the floor or buy one that is low to the ground.

I put a wanted ad on my online bulletin board at work and found someone looking to sell a used twin "captains" bed (box with drawers under the mattress instead of traditional off the floor frame) for a good deal. I liked the idea of the extra storage space and eliminating the abyss that "under the bed" can become for small objects (and dogs & kids). Plus, we wouldn't need a box spring and it would be low to the ground. We took the captains bed and ordered a memory foam mattress online. The mattress was pretty cool. It came in a fairly small box and you just roll it out and it plumps up to its advertised thickness.
So last Friday, we decided to set it up. We thought a weekend would be a good time to start, in case we didn't get much sleep. I took some pointers from friends on Facebook and we let him "help" set it up. We had to take the crib apart to get it out of his room so there was no going back.

We got it in his room and put the guard rail on it. Zane helped put the sheets on it and we put his "new blanket" on it that I had showed him the night before. It's sports themed and has different types of balls all over it. He likes talking about each type of ball as he points to them.

By the time we got it all set up, it was past his bedtime (all part of my plan), so we did our bedtime routine and he climbed right in. I got him a "big boy" pillow to lay his head on. He wanted us to pull the covers up over him like we have in our bed. After a quick talk from mommy & daddy about the need for him to stay in his bed while his bedside clock shines blue, we said good-night and my big boy went RIGHT to sleep.

I'm telling you. It was incredible! Every night since, he gets right in bed and stays there until we come get him in the morning. Even if he wakes up, he stays right there. I could not have asked for a better transition. He wakes up some mornings and says, "I sleeped good, Mommy. Mommy sleep good? Daddy sleep good?" Yes! When Zane sleeps good, mommy & daddy sleep good too!

Now for some pictures and video of Zane and his bed:




Figuring out the rail










Daddy tickling Zane on the bed

Zane playing and talking on the bed


















And finally, good night everybody!



I'm incredibly proud of my big boy! I'm feeling better and better about him being ready to be a big brother. I have every reason to believe he is going to handle it fantastically. Lately, he is talking more and more about his baby sister.

Please keep praying for all of us as we get closer to Taryn's grand entrance in a few months!

We love you all!

Crystal

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Big Boy Chronicles: Adventures in Potty Training

Zane is truly becoming such a big boy right in front of our eyes!

Zane has actually been sort of potty training for months now. The daycare can take way more credit for this than I could! We bought him a little potty a while back just to let him get used to the idea. He actually picked up pretty quickly. We didn't push anything but just took him in there if he asked and he went potty almost every time he sat on it. He thought it was really fun. Our biggest struggle was convincing him that it was time to be done and that we weren't going to play with everything in the bathroom.

At school, using the potty is part of the routine and it is what your friends are all doing so it's fun and cool. I love positive peer pressure! He has been going or at least trying fairly regularly at school for a long time now.

Since he had already been doing so well in his "pre-training," I thought it might be feasible to get him mostly potty trained before Taryn arrives. As much as I have dreaded this transition, I figured it would be easier now than when I am trying to nurse a newborn, so it was now or at least 6 months from now. So, a couple of weeks ago, we took the plunge and bought some cloth training pants, underwear, and pull-ups. There are different methodologies for doing this but I decided to kind of ease into it and just start trying to get him to go more regularly and see if we could keep his diapers pretty dry first. I have friends that have done the "boot camp" method where you just jump in immediately to underwear, don't leave the house, and take them every 15 mins for a couple of days until they've got it pretty well down. I didn't know that this method would go well for Zane's personality or mine. He tends to resist when I push him too hard. So, we started out in diapers just trying to get us all in the habit of thinking about going to the potty more regularly. I asked the school to push it a bit harder with him and take him at least once an hour. After a couple of days, his teacher encouraged me to bring up some underwear for him and let him try it. He might really like it and get the hang of it faster. This made me nervous, but I agreed.

I couldn't let the daycare have the first "underwear" experience with him without us there so we put on the underwear when we got home that evening to try them out. He kept them dry for quite a while and thought he was quite a big boy with his "unnerwears" on.

He has really done pretty well with it at school since then. Most days, he has about 1 or 2 accidents. We are still needing some work on #2 as well but he is making progress. We are trying to find the right balance between not pushing too hard but still being committed. In the evenings and weekends, we let him wear pull ups or diapers a little more if he wants to or we are going out and about. I've also learned that things work best if Zane thinks its his idea. :-) Example: "Do you need to go potty?" "No." "Okay. We will start the movie after Zane goes potty." "I go potty." "Good idea."

I think we are doing well so far. Hopefully, we will have it down pretty well by May. I expect that he will regress some after she is born, but at least the initial work will be done and we will all be used to the routine of it. Our diaper costs have already been significantly reduced but the underwear hasn't been cheap. I do find myself doing a lot more laundry too!

We are so proud of our big boy! Check back soon for the next chronicle- The Big Boy Bed!

With love,

Crystal

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone