Big Boy Bed Update

Yesterday when we got home from church, Randy went upstairs to take down Owen's crib while Owen and I played downstairs. Of course, Owen was totally oblivious to the whole thing and I was feeling very sad. For some reason, I am very nostalgic about him moving into his big boy bed (just as I was about him getting rid of the paci). I am just sad that my baby boy is growing up so fast. And, I guess there is a little part of me that was also feeling sad for him, knowing that he was going to realize that the "baby bed" was just gone and being so worried that he would be devistated. After Randy got the crib down, I took Owen next door to Dorsi's house so that we could re-arrange his room without him being there. I wanted him to just walk into his new room without seeing the whole process take place, if that makes sense. When we took Owen up to his "new room", he was beyond excited to see his toy box in there!! We put that in there as a "replacement" for the crib. We needed to do something to make the whole process exciting for him. He kept saying, "Oh, thank you, Mommy! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" He didn't even seem to notice that his crib was missing. I told him, "You know how Aunt CC has a baby in her belly. Well, Baby Aubrey is going to need a baby bed, so Mommy and Daddy are sending her your baby bed. Now you will get to sleep in your big boy bed all the time and, you are a big boy, just like Drew!!" To which, he replied, "OK, Mommy!" Randy and I just looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders, as if to say "OK, that went much better than we anticipated." We played in his "new room" for about 30 minutes and then it was naptime. I laid him on the floor to change his diaper and that is when he realized his crib was gone. He really only asked about it once and then seemed to be OK with my repeat of giving it to Baby Aubrey (which we aren't really doing by the way :wink wink:). When we laid him down for his nap, he was a little resistant until I reminded him that he had done it for Max (our Elf on the Shelf) back in December. Then, of course, he was asking for Max. So, I went and dug him out, hoping it would have the same result. It worked! The first 10 minutes of naptime were a little tricky because he was very interested in looking out the window and jumping on the bed. But, each time I saw him on the video monitor, I ran in and nipped it in the bud. He quickly realized the rules and then it was just a lot of sitting up and laying down for the next 20 minutes or so, until he finally fell asleep. He only slept about 1 hour 45 minutes, which is well short of his normal 3 hour naps, but I am sure he will be back to normal in no time! Last night, bedtime was a breeze! He actually went down a lot easier for us than he has been in the past few weeks, when we have been struggling with all different stalling techniques on his part. He did wake up several times during the night, but again, that isn't out of the ordinary from what he has been doing lately. We aren't really sure what is going on, but we are thinking he is having bad dreams. Not night terrors because he isn't really upset, just waking up several times and telling us about monsters and saying, "wipe my eyes", from where he has been crying. Anyway, none of the waking last night seemed to be related to the switch to the big boy bed. He did great as far as that goes. And, right now, he is down for his second nap in the big boy bed and so far, so good!! I am so proud of him. I really was expecting this to be a nightmare with how resistant he has been. I guess taking the "baby bed" out of the equation was the trick!!! And, don't worry, Mommy is holding up pretty well, too...I think the thought of the whole thing was a lot worse than the reality :)