Big Girl/ Bed Situation

So the past few weeks have been interesting in the development of my ever growing toddler. She has gotten out of her crib 4 times in the last few weeks and after some scariness for her and Chad and I we decided to make a change. Now all of you moms can understand my reluctance to give up the crib completely (a-almost total containment b-safety c-she is still your baby). But after reading in a childcare book I have it said most children when they reach 35 inches in height can get out of their crib and therefore need to be moved. After measuring Lily, she is 37 inches tall, whoops! So I thought I have 2 choices one being a crib tent to keep her there and not have to deal with the transition to a bed or to just bite the bullet and start it now because we will need the crib for the new baby. So here is our journey in about 10 days time.
Step 1: Add a pillow to her crib to get used to sleeping one direction, take off bumpers (should have been done a long time ago), lower guardrail to lowest position, raise mattress to highest position, put matress on the floor to ease falls, and lastly threaten her NOT TO GET OUT OF HER CRIB or else she will have a time out.
Step 2: Worrying for her safety, and despite the time out threat you also teach her how to climb out and in her crib safely, although not much teaching was involved as she had already figured out this process but the lower railing, and mattress boost did help.




Step 3: Paint over weird splotchy yellow in the guest bedroom with a nice bright green to begin transformation into Lily's big girl room. (Thanks Chad)
Step 4: Two days later Lily says, "Mom I'm big girl", "I sleep big girl bed". Okay, a little earlier than I wanted (my plan was to get the room all cute and decorated first) but let's follow her lead and do it while she's excited about it. So I thought I would just let her fall asleep in there and then put her in the crib, but she did great the whole night so I thought maybe this will work permanently. This first night was so weird for me though knowing she could wake up and just walk out of her room, so I made sure all doors to other rooms were closed and locked and that the hallway was well lit with a night light and that our door was open so I could hear her.
Lily posing so proud of her "big girl" status, and don't ask about the forks in her hand, and she posed herself!
Step 5: After 7 days of sleeping and napping I think it might be a success and she has only gotten out of bed once (I will keep you posted though as I'm sure more trouble is to follow). And as of today she has started telling me when she's pooping and wants to go on her potty, so who knows what the next few weeks will bring, but I feel like saying slow down and let me have my little girl a bit longer!