Big Boy Bed

Rylan has officially transitioned to his "big boy bed"!!! After about three weeks of some very late nights for all of us, he is now happy and content and sleeping soundly in his new bed. For the first two weeks of his transition, we kept his crib set up in his bedroom too. We wanted to have it as a back-up just in case the whole bed thing didn't work out. Good thing we did because Rylan found his new bed to be a little scary at first. It was so big and high off the ground and didn't have any rails on it. Although he was a little frightened, he still wanted to try to sleep in it (I think he liked the fact that it made him feel like a big boy). So, we would try to get him to sleep in the bed, but he'd cry and want in the crib. Then, we'd put him in the crib and he'd cry and want back into the bed. We tried this back and forth business for about two hours every night. After a few nights of this, we decided we'd just let him fall asleep in his crib and move him to the bed after he fell asleep. This worked out nicely, and he loved waking up in his bed in the morning and being able to get up all by himself. But, this didn't solve the dilema of getting him to fall asleep on his own in his bed.
Finally, we decided to take the crib out of his room so that his only option was to sleep in his bed. Surprisingly, he didn't seem to mind that it was gone. But, he still couldn't seem to fall asleep in his bed. So, we spent another week of lying next to him until he fell asleep. This usually took about two hours or so, but once he was asleep he slept through the night no problem. We would also have to lay with him during nap time until he fell asleep. It seemed as though most of our day was spent just trying to get him to sleep.
I am now happy to say that we can tuck him into bed and leave the room and he'll fall asleep on his own. Yeah! Our only problem now is that he's been waking up at 6:30 every morning compared to his usual 7:30 or 8:00. I guess that's what happens when they're given the freedom of getting out of bed whenever they want.

"Look at me in my new bed! I haven't even fallen out. I'm such a big boy now!"

"I love my new sheets and bedding from Grandma! My bed is so cozy!"

Here is Rylan's new bed, with a trundle underneath. We also got him a matching nightstand and dresser. His bedroom now looks like a little boy's room instead of a baby room. I have to admit I got a little emotional as we were setting everything up.

His room is decorated in a fishing/outdoor theme. A lot of the decorations were Bryon's from when he was younger.

He even has a few live fish in his room. Rylan loves his new room and seems thrilled that he gets to give his crib to his new baby sister!