Building Cameron's New Bed

Cameron had been outgrowing his crib for quite some time, but since he never tried to climb out of it we stuck with it as long as possible.  But he was getting to the point that he was getting too heavy to lift in and out and I was wanting him to have a little more freedom to get out of bed in the morning.  Since Cameron still rolls out of bed I knew that he needed something that he couldn't fall out of, but could still get in and out on his own.  I looked on line for different options with no success, so I finally decided to build him a bed frame with railings all around it.  I found a loft bed plan that fit my needs and had planned on just cutting the legs short on it, but after thinking it through a bit more I decided to go ahead and leave the legs long so I could fit another dresser under it.  With three boys in one room, storage space matters!

Cutting the boards was a quick job, however sanding and painting proved to be much more time consuming and back breaking.  After about a week of sanding and painting in the garage it was finally time to build it in the boys room.  In order to make room for it I got rid of Katie's old trundle day bed and gave her the white platform bed that was in the boys room.  When it was finally time to build, Christian was my right hand man... which involved a whole lot of holding boards where and when I told him to... and running to get stuff for me.  He did a fantastic job helping out and we got the whole thing built in just a couple hours.  Once the bed frame was built, we put it into place, put the mattress in, put the changing table underneath it, made the bed and then all the kids piled in to try it out!

The stairs weren't quite done being painted, so for a few days Cameron had to climb in and out of his bed with a chair, which required a little assistance for him.  But once the stairs got put on he has been completely independent getting in and out of bed from then on.  And thankfully we haven't had any issues with him rolling or falling out.  In fact the biggest issue we have had is with him climbing up and into Christian's bed from his.