Big Boy Bed

This is the new bed that my big boy is sleeping in as I type this. I put up a mesh guard rail before he went down, but that didn't make as pretty a picture.

We bought the bed online from Bunk Bed King after doing much research. The price was incredible, especially for solid pine, not manufactured wood. And the fact that they are based in TX meant no sales tax for us, plus they offered free shipping. We were initially thinking of getting him a day bed with trundle, thinking he'd sleep on the trundle at first. But we looked at day beds with trundles on Costco.com and they were pricey. Then we discovered that they sell twin over twin bunk beds with trundles which would give us 3 beds in one. (And since the beds can be separated into two twins, we'll already have a bed for Audrey when she makes the transition in a couple of years.) I had found one retailer online that had a beautiful deco bunk bed that had solid foot and head boards (no place for any body parts to get caught), but after I e-mailed to find out how long it would take to arrive and they said 1 week, when I actually placed the order, it turned out they discontinued that bed. That didn't bode well for their customer service, so we continued to look around.

I came across Bunk Bed King while searching on shopping.google.com. The google checkout reviews were excellent. The one negative review didn't sound too bad. In contrast to some online retailers I investigated where people complained that the wrong product was shipped and they couldn't get anyone on the phone. To be on the safe side, I actually called Bunk Bed King to make sure I could get someone on the phone (I did, right away) and I ordered the bed over the phone after asking a few questions about the bed. I ordered the bed on a Thursday and they shipped it Friday. One box arrived the following Wednesday, and 2 more boxes arrived Thursday. So just a week later, we had the bed.

Thom's friend Bill helped put it together on Saturday. It took just over 2 hours. (Bill has some experience having assembled a bunk bed for his girls that was very similar to ours.) Aaron was so excited about his "big boy bed". But the mattresses we ordered from Overstock.com the day after the bed weren't to arrive until yesterday. The waterproof mattress pads from Amazon.com also arrived yesterday. We had bought some sheets at Ross and Costco the weekend the bed was assembled. By yesterday evening, all the bedding was washed and Thom had unrolled the mattresses onto the lower bunk and trundle (we didn't get one for the top bunk yet). The foam mattresses we bought take a little time to expand to their full size.

After assembling the bed, we thought the bottom bunk was low enough we could just start him there instead of the trundle. (We've even talked about pulling the trundle out as a soft landing spot in case he falls out, but I decided to try him out with the hand-me-down guard rail some friends gave us.) So this morning, I put the bottom bunk together and when Aaron saw it, he wanted to get in right away. He was so excited. We've been talking about it for a week now. About his big boy bed and how we were waiting for mattresses. He pointed out his new sheets to people when they were sitting in their packaging in the kitchen waiting to be washed. He'd wake up from a nap or in the morning and I'd hear him saying "big boy bed". So I had high hopes that he would make the transition easily.

Kim put him down for his nap as usual before she left, only this time it was in his new big boy bed. We closed the door and then I sat across the hall (in my office) listening for him to go to sleep. His music we turn on takes about 20 minutes to end. I heard him chattering in there most of that 20 minutes and heard a noise right after it ended. But then he was quiet. Although I was afraid to wake him, after he'd been quiet at least 30 minutes, I carefully peeked in and confirmed he really was sleeping. He'd turned around so his head is at the foot of the bed and he's on top of the covers. This is pretty much how he did it in the crib, too.

I'm so excited that it went smoothly. But I remember he slept well the first time we put him down in his crib with blankets instead of in his sack. It wasn't until the second or third time that he started to have trouble. But I think that coincided with a cold and/or teething. Still, I know the novelty might wear off and we might have some rough patches ahead, but I'm optimistic. We'll disassemble the crib to get it out of his room this weekend, so it won't be an option anymore. And although he can get out of the bed at the ends since the guard rail doesn't extend the whole side of the bed, I'm hoping we can convince him that he should wait for us to get him up. If he doesn't get up on his own after his nap, I'll probably even pick him up rather than teach him he can slide off by himself (which he does do on the other beds in the house, but they don't have a guard rail, so maybe that will fool him).

My boy is growing up so fast.