Big Girl Bed

This was not planned...
Day 0: Samantha climbs out of her crib. Twice! Boy was she proud of herself. Oh ya, and Joe and I thought it was hilarious. It's a weird thing to hear toys singing and your child playing after you've put her safely to bed in her crib. Then we were worried she would get hurt and decided to change the crib to a toddler bed. Little did we know what we were getting in to...

Day 1: She was so excited about her "big girl bed". She watched daddy put it together and then played in it for awhile. Even Reggie had to check it out. It was very exciting to her. At bedtime we did our normal routine and hoped for the best. A toddler with new found freedom! She could climb out of bed whenever she wanted? She couldn't believe her luck! It was actually pretty cute, and Joe and I laughed for days after at the picture of our adorable toddler opening her bedroom door and running down the hall into the living room squeeling and smiling! (over and over) We had a sense of humor about it but after awhile we were ready to get our kid to sleep. An hour and a half later she was finally asleep! Aaargh! Hopefully it would get better...

Day 2: We had high hopes that this night it would be easier. The excitement should have dissipated, right? It was probably one of the most frustrating nights as a parent I have experienced so far. You know when you are so past your patience level, you can feel it physically? This night was two hours of hell! When she was finally asleep I told Joe to switch it back to a crib. I wanted to give up! The next morning, we found her like this:

Poor baby, she fell out of bed and slept through it!

Day 3: I put Daddy back in charge. He put the princess to bed, closed the door, and put up the baby gate in the door jam. Samantha got out of bed a few times, opened and closed the door, fussed, and sang and talked to her stuffed animals. Forty minutes later, she was asleep. Progress!!! Yay!

Day 4: It took five minutes! Maybe because we skipped nap today. Whatever, it feels like success and I guess Princess Samantha can keep her "big girl bed".

UPDATE:

Days 5-6: More tantrums, more crying, more getting out of bed, more potty breaks....less sleep. Ugh! Why are we doing this?
Day 7: Once again Samantha would not go to sleep. After about forty minutes of "the parents" discussing our options Joe went in to talk to the princess. "Samantha, listen to Daddy. Do you like your big girl bed?" Samantha sobbing, "NOOOO!"
And that was that. Joe went straight to the garage, got his tools, and proceeded to switch the big girl bed back to a crib. Samantha and I read a book while Daddy worked and soon her bed was ready. We kissed our baby goodnight and right to sleep she went!

I guess she wasn't ready for the change to a big girl bed. That's OK, we can wait. I'm actually proud of us as parents to accept that things weren't working out and to make an adjustment.
She hasn't tried to climb out since and our night time routing is back to normal. Thank God our good sleeping baby has returned!