Good bye, crib.

Sunday night, Jeremy slept in a big boy bed for the first time. His own big boy bed!

Jeremy as been sleeping in a pack & play for about month now. At his 18-month well-baby check-up, he measured about one half inch short of the maximum height for his crib. We thought we had wisely purchased a crib that could convert to a toddler bed. Of course, when an expectant parent is buying a crib, she is imagining a sweet, helpless little baby who can't even flip over. She doesn't even know the questions to ask about toddler beds. Toddlerhood seems so next-century. Yet, eighteen months later, the crib is useless. Only to find out that there is a part necessary to convert the crib into a toddler bed, and it will take twelve weeks to special order. Twelve weeks.

What to do? We spent good money on a mattress sized for cribs and toddler beds. Do we keep him in the pack & play, or throw the mattress on the floor until the part comes in? Or do we buy a new toddler bed frame? We are advised by scrupulous retailers that all of that is probably a waste of time and money for various reasons, including the apparent fact that the narrowness of crib/toddler mattresses frustrates many toddlers and disrupts their sleep.

So we decide to buy him a twin bed. It wasn't an easy decision. That's why he was in the pack & play for so long. But on Sunday we got him a nice frame, some leopard-print sheets and an Elmo toddler rail. We had prepared for a rough night given the newness. We shouldn't have. Jeremy slept soundly through the night. He slept like a log. Like a rock. Happily. Deeply. Slumberly. Disassembling the crib was bittersweet. A definitive milestone on the way to toddlerhood. Shedding the baby ways on the way. He seems so little in his big bed. But he is so happy! We can't ask for anything more.