Do They Come In a King Size?

When I became pregnant with my son Jamie shortly after my first daughter Sabrina turned two, the next logical step seemed to be her transfer to a "big girl bed". Like any first time parent with only one child to obsess over, I considered the impact on her little psyche of the impending arrival and was very careful to time the transition well before his birth so as to avoid any feelings of being replaced or ousted from her crib by the new baby.

We read books about big girl beds. We had long discussions about big girl beds. We established rules. We practically called a summit on big girl beds.

The actual change was fairly anti-climactic.

It didn't actually occur to her at first that the big girl bed was any different from her crib and I would still find myself frequently roused from sleep by the piercing howl of a 2 year old shrieking "BOOGIE SAUCE!" Which is Sabrina speak for "My nose is running my humble body servant. Kindly fetch me a Kleenex and wipe it for me."

To her credit I usually responded. In the psychology world this is called behavior reinforcement.

But again, I point out that at the time she was my one and only child as the boy that was yet to be was still fairly easy to take care of in utero. So acting as willing slave to this tiny tyrant seemed okay at the time. Besides, I wasn't planning on sleeping anytime in this millennia anyway.

And then along came Jamie. A bundle of energy, strong-willed, strong-limbed little boy. He could climb before he could walk. The crib was and is the only thing that can ever contain him. We're not sure exactly why. He could easily climb out of it as he demonstrates daily when he climbs in it. But I don't question this gift. I'm just grateful for it every night as I put him to bed. So grateful that when I became pregnant with my third child shortly after he turned two I didn't even consider moving him to a big boy bed. We just hauled the other crib over from my Mom's for the new baby since the thought of Jamie having free range all night every night while I sleep is enough to keep me awake in sheer terror.

But the new baby is my not so new 10 month old daughter Meredith and Jamie is quickly approaching his 4th birthday and it becomes harder and harder to justify keeping him in a crib. After all, any longer and his High School classmates just might make fun of him.