July August 2021 WEB

Moving to the big boy beds
by Michael Carton Director of Education and Outreach, WQPT Quad Cities PBS
When I found out my wife
and I were expecting twin boys, I
was really excited about buying
them bunk beds someday. Back
then it felt like it would be a long
time before they’d be ready to
move out of their cribs and into
‘big boy’ beds; I had no idea how
quickly that “long time” would
arrive!
If feels just like yesterday
that we brought them home from
the hospital, but that was more
than 2 ½ years ago! They looked
so tiny all wrapped up in their
sleep sacks in their cribs those
first few months, but they’re not
so tiny anymore. Lately, when we
watched them sleeping in their
cribs, we realized it was the cribs
that were looking tiny!
Knowing that we needed
to transition them to bigger beds,
I realized it was finally time to buy
the bunk beds. It took surprisingly
little time to convince my wife that
we should and skip over the coollooking
train and car toddler beds (I
think she knew how excited I was
and hoped if I was that excited,
our boys would be, too). Before I
knew it, bunk beds were ordered,
and we started talking about how
we would transition them.
Unfortunately, the boys were
sick the week the boxes arrived,
so I had to wait and look at those
boxes for an extra week before
putting them together. When the
time came finally came, my oldest
son and I assembled them together
in the boys’ room without taking
their cribs apart, giving them time
to explore the bunk beds before we
took the plunge and let them sleep
in them!
The first night or two were
interesting to say the least. My wife
described it best by saying it was
like watching a clown car. Usually,
the boys fall asleep quickly at night
and never try get out of bed, but
they were so excited about the
bunk beds that they kept climbing
in and out of each bed, switching
places and acting completely
silly while doing it! They woke up
multiple times each night, but went
back to sleep rather quickly. One
time, we found them sleeping in
their own bed. Another time, they
were sleeping in opposite beds.
There were a couple times they
were sleeping in the same bed, and
even one time when Jacob was
in Andrew’s bed and Andrew was
sleeping on the floor by the closet!
After a night or two, we
realized it was time to take the cribs
out of their room. So, at the end of
a busy day, my wife kept the boys
occupied so I could break down
the beds. As I started breaking
down the pieces of each crib, I
realized that I was about to break
down. A flood of emotions hit me
as I moved each piece out of their
room. Seeing the bite marks they
left on the crib reminded me of their
teething phase. Taking the mattress
support off reminded me of the
time I had to lower it because they
were growing taller and starting to
climb. With every bolt I removed,
it seemed another memory popped
into my head. When I was finally
done taking the cribs apart, I could
not help but think that if we hadn’t
left the cribs up for me to see them
side by side with their ‘big boy’
beds, I might not have relived all of
those precious memories.
I was so excited for the
bunk beds that I didn’t realize this
next phase means my little boys
are growing up – REALLY fast! A
“long time” in parent years goes by
way too quickly! I hope the next
few years will slow down a bit!
8 July/August 2021 I QC Family Focus