Attempted Big Boy Bed

Ok, So I have done what most Moms tell you not to do since the day Grayson was born, wish for the next stage. As a baby I longed for that neck to hold itself up, for him to hold his own bottle, next came sitting, then crawling, then walking. At nearly twenty months old I wished for my little man to move out of his crib! Here is my story......

Tuesday September 9th Jeremy decides to go out after work and dove hunt. I think to myself, that is ok I dont need his help anyway. I had already decided I was going to convert Graysons crib to a big boy bed to see if he was ready. Taking the bed apart was a snap, the front panel just slide right off. Putting on the lame excuse of a part on the front was easy too. I was assuming it would be more like a rail that kept the kid from falling out but mainly it was for show or to keep the mattress in place (see the pic). Grayson was having a ball. He was helping with the tools, not really but it was cute that he thought he was being helpful. We even managed to rearrange his room. A lot of big changes for just one day. He easily slid into and out of his "new" bed and he was loving it. Night night time came a little later than normal, at nearly 9:30 I laid him down with a sippy of warm milk and read him a book. Poof he was asleep. I was worried about him falling out so I lined the floor below his crib with a mass of pillows and headed to sleep myself. With an open ear I slept waiting for that moment when I'd hear him cry out from falling out of bed, but it never came. Instead at 2:30 in the morning I hear a tiny voice say one word "up". I turn to get out of bed to go check on him and I am greeted with his little face staring up at me from my bedside. "Up, Mommy!" Oh crap, this kid has gotten out of bed walked to his bedroom door, opened and closed his bedroom door and meandered through the dark house to my bedside. I did not see that one coming. What to do now but pull him into bed with us and see if he can sleep the rest of the night with Mommy and Daddy. Nope! After about 10 minutes he sits up with an announcement, "juice?" No, Mommy is not giving a wide awake child sugar in the middle of the night, we settled for another sippy of warm milk. I take him to his room, lay him down with his milk to see if it really could be just that easy. Nope! "Mommy, Books?" I give in (my mistake) let's read a book. Next came let's play with this and so on. I dealt with him for two hours and realized he was officially confused and I saw no end insight. It was at 4:30 in the morning that I knew I had to reassemble his crib in order to get both of us back to sleep. Putting the crib back together wasn't as easy to handle all by myself so I woke up Jeremy. It took both of us until 5 am it took another 30 minutes to calm Grayson down (he didn't want to go back to bed) so at 5:30 I slip back into bed. Ok, Ok I admit at 20 months Grayson is still too young but at least now I know it'll be still a couple months away before I attempt that again.