My Son the Dormouse and his Big Boy Bed

My daughter is like my husband when it comes to sleeping.  She could be in an uninsulated tent in the darkest hour of an Antarctic winter and she would still insist on sleeping with the covers kicked off in as few clothes as possible.  James is more like me.  Cotton lined polar fleece jumpsuit, polar fleece blanky on top and polar fleece blanky underneath and please turn the heating up, thank you so much. 

His Grandma presented to me, a few months before his birth, a “quilt”.  Why am I using the inverted commas?  Because this quilt was made with polar fleece and had so much fluffy batting that it was about as thick as a mattress and the consistency brings to mind the clouds the Care Bears are sleeping on in their animated cartoon series.  It’s not so great as a cover but as something for baby to lie on – ideal.

James has been sleeping on it since he was old enough for me to chance it (I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that Grandma’s delicious soft mattress-quilts are not SIDS and Kids endorsed given their smothery-type qualities).  He used to literally sigh with pleasure when we lowered him onto it and many nights were spent practically comatose with the quilt puffing up around him so he was almost totally ensconced.

Anyways, long story short we’ve been weaning him off the Grandma mattress quilt in preparation for his big boy bed.  But he clearly still prefers the soft touch because this is what we found after we recently gave him a junior pillow to start sleeping with;

Yup, he’s turned sideways and gone to sleep dormouse-style on top of the pillow. 

On to bigger things.  Literally.  We’ve been talking about getting our little Viking a more suitable sleeping arrangement for a while now.  After all, his sister was two when we debuted the Pooh Bear bed (a gift from Nanny) and it wasn’t a moment too soon.  She’d been trying to climb out of the cot at all opportunities for a good six months and we were flirting with trouble - it wouldn't have been too much longer before the lack of a proper bed cost us a trip to triage.

James has not been trying to escape quite as actively as his sister used to but he is taller and even I could see that soon we would have had to put him into bed diagonally so he would fit.  I acknowledge how shameful it is to procrastinate the buying of a proper bed for your son because "he sleeps all curled up anyways".  I digress.  I was not keen to spend $700 on a brand new king single from a bedding store (mattress not included).  Making it myself was cheaper at around $200 but I still would have needed a mattress and the whole lot still would have been about $500.  Enter All Classifieds, my new addiction.  King single ensemble, brand new mattress - $95.  SOLD.

Problem – it’s a bit high and there’s nothing to hold him.  Well why don't we check All Classifieds?  Brand new guard rail - $15.  Can we come see it?

Yes – but it’s $15, RIGHT?

*confused* Um…yes we did see that in the ad.  (I’m guessing he got a bunch of people ringing up and offering him $10 and it’s a deal or something).

In the end?  SOLD!

So now our little guy had a king single bed with brand new mattress and a brand new guard rail to keep him from falling out for about a fifth of the cheapest we could do it brand new and no additional resources were raped, pillaged or plundered in the acquisition of this fine bedroom suite.  Mind you, while we've downgraded from the Care Bear Cloud Quilt arrangement, you might like to take note of the fact that he's still laid out on a Grandma polar fleece special.  There are only so many changes a Viking Dormouse can tolerate.  And here he is all nested up in his brand new big boy bed;