LIssa moves out of her crib!

It has happened. Incontrovertibly my baby is a big girl now! Last night Lissa slept in her "big girl" bed in her room for the first time. We have been working toward this for a while. While she had never tried to climb out of the crib, we worried that she could or that in jumping she would somehow lean forward in a way that would propel her out. (you would have to see her gymnastics ability to grasp the reason for the concern.) LOL

So over the past few months we have made some gradual changes to her bedroom. We put interlocking foam mats under the crib (and then when we moved that out the bed just went on them.) We have wooden floors and no carpeting in the bedrooms and I didn't want her hurt when she fell out of bed. We strapped the dressers to the wall and for good measure gated the room in such a way that she can not readily reach the dressers. (I had visions of her pawing through drawers with abandon if she was in her room and didn't want to sleep or nap) We put a child proof door knob on the inside of her door and a locking gate on the opening to my bedroom. We did all that and then left her in her crib. I think we just didn't want to make that last step forward, leaving babyhood behind.

But yesterday, we did. Lissa helped with the preparations and was so excited to show me her "new" bed when I got home from work. I wondered what it would be like when she went into it. But she loved it. Cuddled up with doll-doll and went to sleep. When I go up to bed I open the gate between our rooms so that if she needs me in the night it is quick to get there, but she was fine. My baby's a big girl now!