A toddler bed fail...but a pacifier win??

I had grand plans this weekend to transition Lorelai to a toddler bed in the hopes that it would help with her overnight pee issue. If she can get out of bed herself at night, maybe she'd come get us when she had to pee? No guarantee, but worth a shot, right? And since she's basically day time potty trained, this is the next logical step to fully potty trained anyway.

So we secured all her furniture to the walls so she'd be safe unsupervised, and took the crib rail off.



She was very excited to play in her new bed and pretend to nap in there with Aidan, so I figured she'd be good to go at bedtime. But apparently she was all talk, no game. Because as soon as I turned out the lights and tried to lay her down, she freaked out and pulled every last blanket and toy off her bed and refused to go near it until I put the crib rail back on. Total fail.

Call me naive, I really had no expectations that this would be a difficult transition at all for her. Aidan easily moved to a twin bed right at 2 years old (to free up the crib for Logan on the way) and Logan had no problem doing the toddler bed thing when he was (I thought) the same age as Lorelai now. Could be that he was older, but either way, 2 out of 3 transitions were a total breeze. But just my luck, third time wasn't a charm. It's like I have three completely different kids or something ;)

BUT...since I had already steeled myself for a long night of being up with Lorelai in case she fell out of bed or took advantage of her new found freedom, I figured I might as well do something else huge instead. Yep, we went cold turkey on the paci.

We had already weaned her down to just nighttime and naps at home a while ago (funny enough, she hasn't napped with a paci at daycare for a year and a half) and she knew the paci always stayed in the crib, but it was time to take that last step and get rid of them for good.

I didn't have a real plan going in because I was debating whether to do the paci fairy or something else along those lines. I had previously mentioned several times that it might be time for the paci fairy to come and take her pacifiers to a new baby who needed them, but she didn't seem to like that idea at all so I didn't really know what to do.

So on a whim, I went with the "oops, I must have lost your pacis, I'll go look for them" trick, tucked her in and left with no intention of coming back in with them (she sleeps with two). Of course she cried for them, so I made a show out of looking for them under her covers and distracted her by taking her to the potty. She woke up crying like 4 more times that night (all while Adam and I were still awake, so not too bad for us), but amazingly, she only asked for the paci that first time.


Shhhh, they're in my sock drawer just in case!

That was on Saturday, so at nap on Sunday, she asked for them again. We looked under her bed and my bed with no luck (obvs), and she went to sleep just fine (although didn't sleep as long as usual, maybe coincidence). Sunday night was the exact same thing--she asked about them, we looked, and she slept fine without one. Tonight, she asked, I said they were still lost and she seemed fine with it.

I don't know if it's too soon to tell, but it's looking like we're pacifier free now, woohoo! And if it sticks, it's really not nearly as bad as I had anticipated.

And if I had to choose, I'd choose the paci win over the toddler bed because to be honest, I'm not all that upset that she's still contained at night. It's more peace of mind for me that she can't get into mischief while no one is looking...or go wake up the boys or crawl into bed with us!

Maybe we'll try the toddler bed again in a month or two...who knows. There really isn't any pressure, thank goodness!