I have made purchases and discarded receipts. It's pretty much final.

I was in Las Vegas this week (HOO BOY, do I have some stories to type up for the public record about that) but the biggest news around here is that we went for it on Friday night and instituted the Big Girl Bed.

A lot of credit goes to every person that voiced an opinion on which kind of bed/setup to buy. If you hadn't used your wealth of experience to point out every pro and con to every scenario I'd dreamed up, I'm not sure I would have ever made a decision. THANK YOU.

My mom was in town so she took her big old Suburban up to Sam's Club and we forked over $422 for a full size bed.  Yes, FOUR HUNDRED BUCKS. Did you know that beds cost so much? I'm not sure what is so complex or expensive about the materials in a bed that makes it cost $400, but this seemed to be the going rate (even less than) so...whatever.  Really wasn't much way of getting around it. We needed a full size bed. This is about what they cost. Ouch. (Makes that expensive drop-side crib we bought two years ago seem like a rather stupid purchase.)

(Note to all prospective parents: CHEAP OUT ON THE CRIB. IT ONLY LASTS TWO YEARS AND THE CPSC WILL SAY IT'S A DEATH TRAP BY THEN ANYWAY.)

Anyway, Claire was VERY excited. She picked out which one she wanted on the wall of plastic-wrapped beds at Sam's and then helped push the cart to check-out, all the while grinning from ear to ear with pride and telling anyone who gave her a passing look,

"This my Big Girl Bed. I a Big Girl."

Once at home, her enthusiasm did not waver.

HOORAY!

After we got the bed put together and the mattress in place she was practically exploding with glee. She scrambled up with ease and proceeded to jump on the bed like it was her personal trampoline and not a place where we expect her to spend many hours laying perfectly still.

At this point, we discussed rules about the new BGB.

Rule #1: No jumping.

Rule #2: You have to stay in the bed.

Those are pretty much all the rules.  We like to keep it simple around here so we don't get in a situation where she remembers more than we do (it has happened).

We actually made a HUGE parenting mistake early on while we were letting her sleep on her crib mattress that we just stuck on the floor (AKA "the fake big girl bed").  We told her the rule was she had to stay in her room, which was a GIGANTIC error as this allows her to freely roam her room playing with toys and trying on clothes until the wee hours. She would "go to bed" at 630 and not fall asleep until 10. And she would do this all within the confines of the rules, which drove us bonkers.

Because we are not very smart, we didn't figure out the flaw in our logic until several nights of this non-sleeping behavior (and by then she was back in the crib for a few weeks because dude, I cannot deal with a FOUR HOUR bedtime fight).

ANYWAY!  After all of that, we ended up with a child sleeping in her BGB by 8 pm tonight. I'm calling it a success and having a brownie.

THE DETAILS

Bed and nightstand: My great-grandmother's. From the 1950's or 1960's. Maple. I would say that it's nothing special but that's exactly what I like about it: simple lines, a nice stain and it's kind of classy in a retro way. (FREE)

Bed: Sam's ($422 for the mattress and box. There are probably cheaper beds out there, but I didn't feel like looking for them and I know I loooooove the beds at Sam's. She will also sleep on this until she's 30, thus making me feel that I'm getting incredible value for my money: just $14 a year!)

Linens: Sheets were 50% off at Kohl's this weekend ($45 for a Full set in white and $25 for a waterproof mattress pad). I like the sheets so much I'm thinking of going back tomorrow to get a second set since kids tend to...leak occasionally.  They're super soft sateen ones and while YES she is just a toddler, I know that I'll be logging lots of hours on this bed in those sheets so I might as well make them NICE. Plus, I kind of thought $45 for a set of not-crappy sheets wasn't such a terrible price, but I'll admit that I didn't shop around. I just hit Kohl's and was happy to walk out with something that met my immediate need. (You'd better believe Claire was not going to let us put her in that crib when a BGB was actually in the house. I needed sheets that very day.)

The quilt is usually in the guest bedroom (TJ Maxx, Cynthia Rowley, I think something like $40 when I bought it last year) and will go back once the Real Quilt arrives. The quilt I have on order is Kaleidoscope Circles from Land of Nod (a gift -- thanks Grandma!).  Still need to get a fitted sheet on the box spring but I might just fake it and fold an old blue sheet over the part of the box spring that shows.

Stepstool: Target (usually lives in the bathroom at the sink and will go back there once she figures out how to scramble up there easily) (I think it cost $25, I bought it a year ago.)

Lamp: PBK, shower gift from 2008

I'm going to troll Etsy in the next few weeks for wall art (anyone have favorites/ideas on where to start?), and I have some letters that spell "Claire" to put over her bed. I also plan on putting a fabric pocket thing on the wall next to the window for her to put books in so that it's easy for her to read in bed. 

One day I will take down the blackout liner that is thumb tacked up and actually hang real curtains. Maybe not one day SOON, but one day.

So, it's still totally a work in progress (don't judge me yet!) but I'm pretty proud of myself for getting a bed in and the crib out with 16 days to spare before my self-imposed January deadline. WOO!

Comments

[Holly]

How exciting for her! I love dreaming about how things will be with Clara based off Claire's antics :) We bought a crib that turns into a toddler bed with rail, then without rail, so I'm hoping it lasts until she's like 4? Then we'll spring for a twin. Unless of course baby #2 makes an appearance before the age of 4, in which case.... Hmmmm.... guess we'll cross that bridge!

[KLTTX]

Exciting! We will be buying Samuel a big boy bed soon. Not looking forward to the expense of new furniture or the fact that he'll have free reign of the house, but he can't stay in his crib much longer. Speaking of cribs, are you using the drop down crib for the new baby? We are still using the crib we bought for Davis and I am debating whether we should still use it for #3 given it is a death trap per the government.

[Elizabeth]

I love the bed! It's so much nicer than you made it sound :) Had I known it was so cool looking I would have fully advised going for it from the start!

[Wendy Watkins]

Well done! Congrats to Claire for graduating to big girl status. Two tips though: You may learn from my extremely inconvenient mistake. Buy several waterproof mattress pads. One will ensure a middle of the night accident. Several will mean you will never need them. Second tip: wallwords.com

[Arwen]

We're switching Blaise out of his crib in two weeks, moving Camilla and him into the same room, and we're going so ghetto! We already have a queen mattress and box spring and a twin mattress and box spring in addition to the king that's in our room (which we're keeping for ourselves, obv.) so we're just sticking the queen and twin beds in the room for the kids. We'll put the box springs on the floor, or we might even put the mattresses right on the floor if that seems safer. Ghetto! I'm nervous about Blaise not being in a crib anymore - I don't want him roaming the house at night! - and Camilla has slept in a room away from us in the past (she's currently in her own bed in our room) but never without coming to our room in the middle of the night. So this could go very badly. Yikes.

Claire's new bed is adorable! And I don't think you should feel badly about not shopping around - $400 isn't so expensive for a good full-sized mattress and box spring. Our king cost around a grand, I think, and so did the one we bought for my parents last year. A full size is probably 40% the size of a king, so the price seems proportional. :-)

I am totally in love with the quilt you're getting for Claire. I wonder if I can justify a similar one for Camilla at some point in the future...

[HereWeGoAJen]

I always laughed at all the people who bought the cribs that convert to the full size beds later. They are all going to have full size beds with bite marks all over them. (Of course, our crib was a gift from the in-laws, so it was still ridiculously expensive, but whatever, not MY money.)

[Meghan]

The bedroom furntiure is great! Not as big or bulky as you made it sound.

Have you found something for her books yet? I just started looking for something soft to put on the wall next to her bed for books and I haven't found anything I like yet.

[Whitney]

I laughed out loud viewing the photos - hilarious! I'm glad she's so happy in her BGB. Dublin is preparing to launch himself out of his crib, so I know we have to look into doing the same thing.

[Mel]

These photos are so cute, I could die. Love seeing and hearing about all this since we are just a few months behind you.