Well, Dagmar has been in her Big Girl Bed for a couple of months now and loves it. We took the side rail off when she started climbing out of her crib and put up the little bed rail, but to be honest she never really liked that. She did do OK with the side down for a while, though, and also we gate her into her bedroom so we know if she does get up in the middle of the night she can just play in her room safely and not wander around the house.
Does he ever fall asleep on the couch? Does he fall off? She used to fall asleep there all the time, and only fell off once, so we felt pretty confident that we could take the side rail off about 4-5 months ago, then got the real bed for Xmas.
We didn't buy a frame so the box spring just sits on the floor, which is fine because if she ever does fall out she won't get hurt.