Since my son transitioned from crib to bed four months ago, we've become nostalgic for our lost, but oh-so-blissful year and a half of uninterrupted sleep. The absence of wooden bars has meant startling midnight visits from a sometimes friendly, sometimes grumpy creature who needs to pee or wants to have a sleepover party in our room, which usually involves a lengthy discussion, at full volume, about his most recent dream. It’s adorable and really, really exhausting. But I realized the other night that since this is an unavoidable part of growing up, the only way to cope is to dig up a bright side, shake the dirt off and squint until it vaguely resembles whatever a bright side looks like to you. In that spirit, here are six fairly cool things about your kid switching from crib to bed. Let’s all pretend to be excited together!
Even after potty training is complete, wetting the bed is sort of inevitable for toddlers and kids alike… which is why I keep reminding myself, at 2:30 am, how cool it is that five-foot tall me doesn’t have to bend over awkwardly and yank a mattress out of a rectangular pen. My son’s new bed saves me two to three minutes of teeth gritting as I wrangle a mattress pad and fitted sheet off of and then onto my kid’s big bed. Victory!
No longer must you nestle yourself into your child’s unsupportive beanbag chair or lean against the uneven spines of the books shoved onto his shelf. As bedtime approaches, you can now shrug off your long day, lie down under the adorable comforter you chose from that ridiculously overpriced kids' company, crack open your toddler’s favorite book and read until you accidentally, but very comfortably, fall asleep.
There is no stopping a determined child from waking up right when you are fast asleep and stealthily climbing into bed with you. As disruptive as this can be to your sleep, it is pretty cute. And it’s pretty much a crib-to-bed guarantee!
The days of boundaries are over and so are the days of jamming a pack and play into your trunk or on top of that stack of luggage you’re checking before your flight. Since your child can now escape any sleeping set-up you put her in, she can sleep wherever! Be it on a cot, in the middle of a hotel queen bed surrounded by pillows, or on a makeshift futon composed of couch cushions and suspiciously old fleece blankets, your child can sleep safely and will most likely still climb out of bed at least twice during the night.
There are, as heretofore mentioned, a lot of ridiculously expensive and/or ridiculously charming sorts of kids bedding and now is when you get to buy it! Or, now is the time when you get to deliberate for weeks about whether buying it is actually worth it! Crib bedding was cool, but all you needed was a sheet. Enjoy grinning and grimacing at every kind of pillow cover, comforter, and fitted twin sheet set under the sun!
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