the crib is GONE!

Big update in the Morrice home: we no longer have a crib.

We have never not had someone in our crib, at least, not since August 2010. Because of our kids being so close in age it was musical beds for the last five years and the crib was never empty. Lily was evicted the quickest at 16 months, then Oli followed a bit slower around 24 months (each a month after their younger sibling was born), and Chloe was the most recent Morrice meatball to bid the crib a Dieu at 23 months.

Chloe's transition from the crib was the most gradual and child-led since we had no one who needed it! She is a big baby and was reaching recommended height/weight capacity for our crib, plus she loved to jump and was kind of a daredevil so it seemed right to move her out. We started with putting the crib mattress on the floor (pictured above) and getting her used to the idea. We started with naps since during naptime she's alone in the room and goes down quickly.

Once she had the naptime nailed, we tried night time. different. ballgame.
Having two older siblings in the room with her made her wild. Wilder than usual. The freedom was like Koolaid. It got to the point where the older kids were complaining that Chloe was waking them up after they'd fallen asleep. So once the crib was gone, we had the pack-and-play nearby as "consequence" if she got too wild. Some nights she ended up back in her pack-and-play by 7:30pm, other nights she did better, but still eventually needed to go back in around 8:30pm.

Chloe is about ready to drop her nap (I wish she wasn't but girlfriend is just not tired if she takes one), and on days when she doesn't nap, I stagger the kid's bedtimes and put her down first around 6:30pm. Once she's asleep the big kids follow 30-60 minutes later and it's perfect. Other nights she's not tired and it's a bit chaotic.

All the pain of chaotic bedtimes and rowdy toddlers is worth it to have the extra floor space in our kid's room! It feels HUGE now! We have a bunk bed and Chloe's mattress beneath the bottom bunk (here's an instagram pic). So three kids sleep in the foot print of one kid, which is pretty great. But it's bitter sweet, of course. For so many years it was bassinet, crib, repeat. It seems like our family has had a lot of change the past couple of months, so I'm constantly trying to strike the balance of rejoicing in new seasons and being thankful for past ones without too much mourning.