I'll preface all of this by saying that Hayley REALLY enjoys going to bed at night. Each evening we wind down (actually there isn't really any "winding down" for Hayley) by watching Wheel of Fortune at 7pm. Hayley has always loved Wheel of Fortune and likes to hear contestants call the letters. She also looks forward to any pharmaceutical commercials that come on during that time. We've never been able to figure that one out, but she will drop everything she is doing to zero in on a pharmaceutical commercial. Anyhow, after the bonus round, Hayley grabs her milk, tells Mommy "bye," and grabs Daddy's finger to lead him off to storytime. After a few books, she then tells Daddy, "I done." Daddy will repeat Hayley's command and she will follow up by telling him, "bed, seep." At that point, it's off to bed where once in bed Hayley promptly tells us "bye." Never did we expect to have a toddler who so adamantly enjoys going to bed (and being left alone I might add). The comfort of this enjoyable, predictable and easy bedtime routine has made both Brian and I very nervous about the big girl bed transition. After all, why would you want to "fix" something that isn't broken? We absolutely enjoy our peaceful evenings and knowing that they are quickly dwindling doesn't make us at all anxious to do something that would make the peace cease immediately.
Last night we followed our regular bedtime routine except this time, Hayley was placed in her big girl bed. She got a little irritated at first and kept trying to climb into her crib. She'd drop Pooh in the crib, and go back and get her blanket and Froggy and drop them in the crib and then look up at us and fuss. After all, she wanted to go to bed!! Finally, I laid down on the bed with Pooh and Froggy and showed her that it was a place to sleep. She laid down next to me. After realizing that it was comfortable, she sat up, pushed me, and told me "bye." In other words, "get the heck outta here, I'm ready to go to bed!" I stood there and rubbed her back a bit and then slipped out of the room before heading off to watch her actions on our surveillance camera. Yes, we've hooked up a camera in Hayley's room that allows us to "spy" on our little dear all by turning to a channel on our tv. (Next, Brian plans to implant Hayley with a GPS microchip. We wouldn't want her to ever "get away" with anything!) It took Hayley a while to figure out exactly where to sleep in her new bed to be comfortable, but bless her heart she laid there and eventually went to sleep without so much as a fuss.
We had originally intended to start letting her sleep in the big girl bed at night while keeping her in the crib for naps. Naptime can be a little challenging as Hayley likes to sit and chat for a good 30 minutes before falling asleep. I figured naptime would be a difficult time to keep her in bed. But, after last night's success, we decided we should try the big girl bed for naps as well so we didn't confuse her. So at 1pm off to the big girl bed she went. I sat her down in bed and she immediately told me "bye." She seemed pleased as punch to be in her bed, so I left the room. She jabbered for a good 30 minutes like usual and then, SILENCE!So, at this point, we're 2 for 2 and cautiously optimistic that we get to put a check next to one of those New Year's goals! It's days like this when we think, "hey, this parenting thing is pretty easy!" Yeah, I know, we'll probably get the rug pulled out from under us later this week!
Here's a little snippet of Hayley's first impression of the big girl bed. Lucky for us, her attitude changed quickly.
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