Big Girl Bed.

Welp. Here we go.

Last night I put this photo up on Instagram...

{aside - my friend Lisa told this joke the other day - "How much does a hipster weigh? An Instagram." Bahaha.}

Yup. That's a toddler rail.

That's right. My baby girl is officially in her big girl bed. Well, her crib. But the big girl version. OY.

We had a really rough night last night. After two days of late bedtimes, thanks to some extra playing with Nana while we went on our date night and a super late night at the parade on Saturday, we knew that bed time was going to be rough - but add in the molar coming through and the current state of sniffles she has herself in and it was a straight up recipe for disaster.

And then it happened.

Girl climbed out of her damn crib.

With socks on, with the crib at the lowest setting. She put her leg up, like a ballerina at a barre exercise, and then used the other rail do do a push up and that was that, she was up and over - feet first this time.

Up until now, the socks were enough to keep her from gaining enough traction to get up. But, I guess this last growth spurt gave her just enough height to throw her little toesies up there and hoist herself over.

She met her frantic Daddy and I at the door to her room.

As he grabbed her to try and soothe her and get her back in, I started frantically googling what the heck to do.

Then she climbed out a second time. And a third. (Well started to - we were hovering just outside of her room by this point so we didn't let her feet actually hit the floor either of those times).

So, we decided - even though ALL the websites and experts and BLAH BLAH BLAH ALL say she is way too young and we should try crib tents and stuff first - to pull the trigger and put on the toddler rail.

A. If anyone knows my daughter well, it's us. And girl would be STRAIGHT pissed with one of those things.
B. Our ultimate goal is to get her into an actual big girl bed here shortly. Not when new baby comes along - we aren't total idiots - but sometime thereafter.
C. How do I put this? I don't think we are "crib tent" people.

At the end of the day, we were most concerned about her safety. She is so little to be jumping down all that way to the ground with the tall side of the crib up. With the toddler rail on, she can safely climb in and out at a reasonable height - not that we are encouraging the climbing out, of course.

By the time all was said and done last night, she didn't go down to per until quarter to eleven. Ridiculous. But, she was down and cozy.

Did she roll out of bed in the middle of the night and scare us half to death? Abso freaking lutely.

Did she happily go right back down in her big girl bed and sleep the rest of the night in there, greeting me at the door (which is now gated again) with a happy smile this morning? Yup. That too.

Then she showed me 10 times before breakfast how she could climb up into her big girl bed and lay down. With a huge smile. Also, she voluntarily climbed up in there with a few books and read this morning. Happy as a clam.

I'll be honest. I am still torn to pieces about this decision, but my gut says that this is the right thing to do. And the biggest lesson I have learned as a parent so far is to trust your gut.

Does a small part of me wish she was one of those kids who was sleeping happily in her crib till she's like 4? Um, yes. But, in reality, that's not my daughter.

So, we shall embark upon this journey a little earlier than we had planned.

{And keep y'all informed of course.}

Wish us luck.



Evelyn Rae is 16 months old, I am 28 weeks along with Baby Bumps-a-lot

...and is this real life?! She's still supposed to be my BABY.

...Evelyn may not have been the only one to shed some tears last night. Damn hormones.