Big Boy Bed

Last night we put our little baby boy in his big boy bed for the first time!! We got everything in his room ready the night before, and I don't think I've EVER been so emotional as a parent! When I went to peek in on him before I went to bed that last night in his crib, I was immediately an emotional basketcase. I had to go get the video camera and just stood there bawling over the camera and over his crib. Then I said to Kevin, "I think I need to hold him." So we got him up and I rocked him for a while, just sobbing. It was one of those moments where you think: "What if this is the last time I get to do this?" Goodness, children grow up too fast. 

Anyway, so we actually put him in the big boy bed when we came home from church last night. Kate REALLY wanted to sleep in Graham's bed with him, so the bedtime hour was a little more stressful than usual, and by the time we were putting Gray in bed it was almost 9:00. Kevin put him in the bed first, but he immediately started crying and hopped right up. When I got in there, I rocked him for a minute or two and then tried to lay him down again, but he just started screaming like he was terrified. It COMPLETELY broke my heart so I just picked him right back up. We tried that a couple more times and he was just beyond upset. So finally I laid down with him in the bed and he curled up right next to me without so much as a peep. I stayed there for about 30 minutes and he only popped his head up once, looked around, and then lay right back down when I told him to. When I got up he started crying again right away, but I went ahead out of the room and by the time I had walked across the house to check the monitor he was already quiet again. He was peeping over the bed rail at first, but then not even a minute later, he lay down and went right to sleep! He slept all night and woke up around 6:15 (waaay earlier than usual). I just stayed in bed and watched the monitor for a while. For the first 15 minutes, he just rolled around talking to himself in the bed, then he sat up and looked around for a few minutes, and THEN he realized he could climb out of the bed. The expression on his face when he first stood up was priceless! He looked like he wanted to say "What exactly is going on here?" He kinda just stood there for a little while, then crawled back into bed and lay down for a few minutes...and that's how the next hour went. I just watched him crawl in and out of the bed. At one point he even laid down for 10-15 minutes and I thought he MIGHT go back to sleep, but no luck. He was really good, though, just checking things out! 

Hopefully we'll have successful nap times today and HOPEFULLY no more of that crying - I just can't bear it!! And, yes, hopefully he'll start sleeping 'til 8:00 again once he gets used to things! :) Graham is 16 months old now, and it's so hard for me to believe that when we put Kate in the bed at 15 months, we actually thought she was "all grown up." How clueless we are as parents sometimes! Graham is definitely still a little baby, and I'm SO thankful for that! We'll keep treasuring all the snuggles while he's willingly giving them out and enjoy these last couple months before he's no longer my littlest baby!!!