Mary Joyce's Big Girl Bed

This weekend, the major project around here was getting Mary Joyce's "big girl" bed set up. Chet and I purchased the bed last week, and then this Thursday we had to pick it up from the furniture store in Daytona Beach during Race Week--we must be crazy! (Did I mention the furniture store is in a shopping center right across from the Speedway? Did I mention crazy?) Anyway, we got home with it, and yesterday's project was getting it set up.

The bed is actually part of a bunk bed set, but it can be split into two twin beds. Right now, since Katherine is still in a crib, we have set up one of the twins for Mary Joyce and have the other half in storage for Katherine when she gets a little older. Then, we changed Mary Joyce's former toddler bed back into a crib and moved Katherine into it, so that she can have the toddler bed when the time is right. Katherine's former crib is now in storage for Malcom whenever the house addition is completed. Clear as mud?

Of course, setting up the new bed and making room for it involved rearranging pretty much every piece of furniture in the girls' room, with the exception of the changing table. And, on top of that, when the addition is done, they will be moving into a bigger bedroom anyway. So, this arrangement has to get us through until that point. (That also explains why there are tab-top valances on curtain rods that really aren't very pretty--the valances were bought for the new room, but I went on and switched them out because the ones that were there were part of Mary Joyce's crib set that we are no longer using.)

Anyway, Mary Joyce slept in her bed just fine last night, except that at first she was WAY too excited to fall asleep. And, with it being Sunday morning, we had to wake her up this morning, which meant she was a bit grouchy from lack of sleep. Other than that, all was well.

I had a couple of people on Facebook asking me how we got her to sleep in her new bed. I don't really have a lot of helpful hints in that area. Mary Joyce, unlike many children adopted from China, has always slept in her own crib. From the information we got about her foster home, she was sleeping in a crib there instead of with her foster family, as is common in China. She took right away to sleeping in her own room. One thing I think that helped when we transitioned her from the crib is that it is a convertible crib, so even when we took the side off, her first "big girl" bed had the same mattress and bedding she was used to. She slept in that toddler bed for well over a year and would probably still be in it now if we didn't have another baby on the way. On this new bed, we've been talking it up to her for quite awhile, getting her used to the idea. By the time the bed was actually set up, she had grown accustomed to the whole concept. The girl likes her sleep, so these kinds of transitions just aren't too terribly difficult for her.

I've included a slideshow of pictures in the next post. :-)