Recently I had decided it was time for Caitlin to “move on” to another stage of her young life.
As with all babies & toddlers, all this while we have had to carry her on & off her cot, over the protective barrier that, obviously, keeps her from rolling / falling off her cot.
For over a month now, Caitlin has been showing signs that she is toilet-trained. She would wake at nights exclaiming that she needs to go pee, where this groggy Daddee would drag himself out of bed, lift & carry her over the barrier (mind you she is getting heavy too), sit her on her toddler-toilet-seat over the adult toilet, wait for her to finish, and lift & carry her back on her cot.
She has also demonstrated that she could get on & off the seat on her own with the help of a foot stool that lives in the toilet.
So over the weekend I had modified her cot for the third time. No wait, second time, for the third stage.
Stage one: The cot is set up where the bed / mattress is about stomach height. This is obviously for the infant stage where it is the ideal height for tending to them.
Stage two: This is for toddlers, where the little ones can be lifted on & off their “bed”. One side of the barrier is actually slideable, presumably for ease of access.
Stage three: Freedom!
She is now able to get on & off her “bed” all by herself, which, I am not sure yet if it’s such a good idea after all!
She was having her daily nap when I did this. When I showed it to her when she was awake, she didn’t seem too excited either way. But when bedtime came, she had actually said that she will lie in it for a while, but will still want to fall asleep on my bed as she does, and she did! Thought that was quite cute, that she wanted to test-drive the getting on / off on her own initiative, but knew that she would still miss her Daddee comforting her to sleep beside her!
Sigh.. they grow so quickly…
We got this cot from Planet Enfante.
We also had a cot that converted for Little Miss, but she never really took to the converted version – she fell out a couple of times the first night.
In the end we had to put the cot back together until we got a new bed for her – we got her one like the racing car beds I always wanted as a kid, but this one had lots and lots of butterflies on it.
The good thing is she can’t fall out – the bad thing is we always find her with her toys strewn everywhere after her afternoon nap. Works a treat at night though, she loves it.
Good luck with the shift to the big girl bed, and yes they do grow up too quickly.
Caitlin hasn’t fallen off the bed so far, though it’s only been under a week since the modification.
She has, however, “lost” he little pillow every night since. She likes to hug her little pillow when she sleeps, perhaps also because it keeps her warm.
So, in the still of the (every) night, she has been waking up, and ever so gently and calmly, “Mummy, where is my pillow?”
[...] or even continued looking for places to buy – Caleb had simply taken over Caitlin’s bed turned (back) into a cot, and Caitlin started sleeping in our bed with us- between us! We have a super-king-sized bed so [...]