Ashley and the Big Girl Bed

This picture is a year old, that's why Ashley looks so little haha.

     Ashley has been napping on and off in the twin bed we have in her room . It's normally reserved for grandmas when they come to stay so we don't have to make them sleep on the floor, but with baby brother coming in a few months we knew we needed to switch her over anyway. We lamented for a while about what we were going to do, whether or not we could afford to buy a toddler bed and another mattress for it, new bedding, all that jazz, and how in the world we could fit it in her room without having to take out the twin bed. It was going to be very crowded. In the end we decided on buying a bed rail and letting Ashley sleep in a twin bed and then when the grandmas come to visit they can sleep in Ashley's bed and Ashely can sleep on a children's cot. We found one online for $30 and $30 sounded better than $56 for a toddler bed (WalMart), $38 for a second mattress (also at WalMart) and who knows how much on new bedding for a smaller bed.
      So Ashley's second birthday marked the beginning of bed rail hunting and within a week we had it all set up and started letting her take naps in the bed. Some days she just wouldn't sleep and we would put her in the crib and I have to say, we should have tried harder but we didn't. I was a little concerned about losing some sleep at night by trying to have her sleep there at night too so I gave in and put her in the crib for night sleeping.
     Two nights ago as we were saying our family prayer, giving crazy kisses, and prepping her for bed she said "I want to sleep in the big girl bed" which she sometimes says for her naps. I asked her if she really wanted to or if she would rather sleep in the crib but she insisted that she would sleep in the big girl bed. The thing is, Ashley is excited about the big girl bed. She loves it, in fact. But she's had considerable shorter naptimes in the big girl bed and I think I suffered enough with an hour and a half less of nap time per day. I was not excited about losing a few hours to myself in the morning too, not to mention then numerous times she was bound to wake up at night and realize she could get out of bed. But Spencer didn't have school the next morning so I knew I'd have help if things didn't go well and I gave in. We let her sleep in the big girl bed. After tucking her in and saying goodnight, Spencer and I settled into the couch to watch a movie, taking bets on how long we though she'd last until she came out. We were both sooo wrong! She never came out once and she slept until about 8:30 which is around her normal time for waking up in the morning! I was shocked!
     And so we let her sleep in her big girl bed last night too. She came out once asking to watch Buzz and Woody. We calmly told her it was time to sleep, tucked her back in and that was the end of it! Spencer was up a little after 5 this morning to go early morning fishing and I expected the noise to wake her up and that she would sleep a few more hours with me but nope! She stayed asleep! She didn't sleep as long as the night before, only until 7:20 (so we'll see how the day goes haha) but she did it! I'm hoping this goes on and that she continues to have good nights in her big girl bed. I was terrified that this would be a long, complicated process that resulted in a tired mama, a tired toddler, and grumpiness/impatience all around, but so far so good! Wish us luck that it keeps going that way! :)