The girls and I are up here in Maine with my parents for the long weekend, and since the bedroom the girls stay in has a pair of twin beds, we thought maybe we'd give them a try, and see how the girls fared. Granted, they're already a little out of their element being away from home, but I thought it might provide some insight into what might or might not happen if we attempt to make the crib-to-bed transition for good. Here's the play by play:
Last night, 5:30 pm.
We realize that the bedrails my mom bought for the purposes of this experiment (and for future visits -- the beds are on the high side) are not as easy to assemble as we'd assumed: things to measure, about a dozen different parts, a packet of screws, and one of those instruction manuals in five languages with lots of big WARNING! boxes throughout. My parents are on their way out the door to a neighbor's BBQ so there's no chance we're going to get the things put together in time for bedtime.
I am about to go out to the car and get the Pack-n-Plays (brought just in case) when my dad, who is sort of like a domestic MacGyver, goes down to the basement and returns with two card tables. He unfolds one pair of legs on each of them, shoving the legs between the mattress and boxspring of each bed, so we have ourselves a couple of rather unsightly but perfectly serviceable and sturdy improvised bedrails. Go Dad!
7:15 pm -- Bedtime
We've been talking up the whole "big girl bed" thing all afternoon and evening, so after a couple of books, the girls are very excited about getting into bed and under the covers. I kiss them goodnight, rub their backs, and leave, thinking: Wow! It worked! That was so easy! (Somewhere, God is laughing.)
7:40 pm
Just as I sit down to eat my dinner, Clio starts crying and I can tell from the volume and intensity that it's not going to stop any time soon. I hear Elsa jabbering, too, and when I go into the room she (helpfully) announces, "Clio is crying." Clio, meanwhile, is standing up in her bed, holding onto the edge of the card table, very much awake, yelling "I want to go downstairs!" And soon enough, Elsa is shimmying down to the end of the bed and crawling down and asking to go downstairs, too, "just a little bit."
After some persuasion, some rocking in the rocking chair, and some strategic hanging of blankets over the windowshades in an attempt to block more light, I managed to get them back into bed, and this time they stay put. I think the main problem might have been the light, but I also think they might not have quite gotten that it really was bedtime, and yes, they really were going to stay there all night. Anytime they've been in a grown-up bed before, it's just been for a minute or two of "pretend" sleeping.
But sleep they did, until 7:30 am, with only one small interruption: At 3:30 am, Elsa woke up crying, sounding upset, and I went in to check on her. She was sitting up in her bed, looking somewhat disoriented, and asked if she could go downstairs and have a banana. (?) I rocked with her in the chair for a little bit, reminded her where she was, and she settled back down fairly quickly.
Today, 1:00 pm -- naptime.
I could tell from the get-go that things were not going to go smoothly. Elsa was overtired and cranky and Clio was just plain wound up. They'd had a busy morning with my Mom, going to the farm down the road to see the animals, picking up rocks on the beach, trying out the new plastic see-saw in the backyard. (My father is also a consummate trash scavenger!) I got them down into bed, but didn't have high hopes.
1:15 pm
Crying, yelling, talking. When I get upstairs, both girls are out of bed. Clio wants to go downstairs and play. Elsa doesn't know what she wants, but it's not being in bed. I try sitting and rocking with them -- no dice. They decide they want to go to sleep on the floor, and curl up on the rug. I ask them if they'd like to go to sleep in their cribs. A resounding yes from Clio. More crying from Elsa, who is about to put her knuckles through her eyeballs, she's rubbing them so hard. I go out to the car and get the cribs, set them up, and put the girls into them.
1:40 pm
Within minutes of my leaving the room, the girls are asleep. it is now almost 2:45, and they are still asleep. God bless 'em.
The verdict:
I'm going to let the girls decide, for the remainder of our stay here, whether they want to sleep in the beds or the cribs, and not try to force one over the other. I wish we had this option at home -- to have both cribs and beds/mattresses in the room while we make the transition. But there just isn't enough space.
I'm worried about the girls' increasing agility, and suspect that it won't be long before they're able to crawl out of their cribs -- or at least make attempts, which could be dangerous. So, I think it's time to cruising Craigslist for some beds, toddler or otherwise, and make the transition soon. I think that once the girls get used to this concept of sleeping *and* napping in their beds, they'll be more likely to stay put. Thanks for all your good advice when I last posted about this.
