big bed

I don't know crib transitioning etiquette. How, when or why. Not a thing about it.
With my particular two-year-old, there's no time for petty research.
But I do know that Carter was starting to look cramped in that crib. (I'm editing out the part where he invariably insists on sleeping with five stuffed Winnie the Pooh characters, a teddy bear and an elephant pillow.) I talked to him about getting his own big bed before we swiped his crib from under him, but I don't think he grasped that this meant actually changing his sleeping life. I'm betting he thought a big bed would be added somewhere in the house for his own daily, jumping amusement.
Because that's what the other beds are for.
I notice most parents in the facebook/internet world gradually remove crib rails, then buy a small toddler bed with plans to eventually buy a larger bed when the child grows.
Yeah. We skipped all those steps.
One day a couple weeks ago, we pulled apart his crib and turned it into a headboard and footboard for his new, full-sized, big boy bed. I like to think of this cold turkey strategy as having a couple bits of genius to them. Most obviously, this will be his first and last bed transition until he leaves home. Since the crib is in pieces, there's no confusion about going back. I love that he'll be sleeping with that crib, in some form, for his whole life here. I'll always be able to see my baby in that wood while he's all growing up-ish.
While we were on the floor setting up the new bed, Carter was jumping around, squealing with widened eyes when he was finally, truly convinced this new bed would belong to him. But when it came time to go to sleep in it? No thix, Mommy. I was a little annoyed that nobody'd tweeted, facebooked or just screamed out their window that bed transitioning takes the same type of persuasion as say, potty training.
Ok so really, it's not as hard as potty training, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were a book or two out there called Toddler Bed Training. Or somebody's at least written a small, dog-eared chapter in a dusty library about it.
Night one was a small fight, but that's it. The freedom to get in and out of his own bed sunk in fast and has almost completely eliminated bedtime battles. The little rebel giggles in hysteria when he slides out of his bed, as if he's single handedly defied the most militant law on the planet and lived to see an extra minute. He's just been released from years full of hours of solitary crib caging.
Which is a thought so happy, that it would make any toddler sleep pretty solid at night.
If you need a little Big Bed video drama (you do.), have a watch.