20 Month Old Crawling Out of Crib and Twins on the Way...

You might as well transition him to to a toddler bed now, while you have a little time to work on it. With consistent training (firm but kind) any kid can be trained to stay in bed. You just have to find the right motivation. Or, just leave the side rail down on the crib and let him use is as a regular bed - letting himself in and out. My first child climbed out at 16 mos. and we did this for a short time before transitioning to a regular bed. He was a great climber and did just fine (back in the days when there were no video monitors and audio monitors were new!).

SAHM of seven, 23 yrs - 20 months

We had a similar problem before my son arrived. We decided to make the switch to the toddler bed to try to adjust her before the baby came. Initially we sat in a rocking chair in her room keeping her in bed until she fell asleep. It worked after a while but it was a lot of work. We gradually moved the chair out of the room. She had a meltdown and we ended up just closing her door. We tried a baby gate on the door to slow her down but she scaled that too. Now we put her in her bed read her two books say good night, shut the light off and shut the door. She is great and stays in bed and goes to sleep.
We have a baby monitor in her room and a safety knob on the back side of the door so she can't get out. My son is 5 months old now. She used to play forever before passing out on the floor for naps. Night time -for a long time she slept next to the door on the floor. It broke my heart but after a while she started going back to her bed after talking to us under the door (we ignored her)
Whatever you choose it is a process and just takes a lot of time. Not really what any expectant mother wants for advice. Congrats on the twins and good luck.

My daughter is 20 months as well and has been sleeping in a toddler bed for the last 2 months. She did have some problems with napping at first because she was able to get up and play as she wanted but I have found that she loves her new bed. Now when it is bedtime, she will lay in her bed and roll over away from the door and within minutes she is asleep. I would suggest doing it before the babies come so there is less confusion on him. You don't want him to think that because the babies are here he now has to give up his bed. Hope this helps....

I made the crib to toddler bed transition with each of my four kids between 20 and 22 months. They did great. It took a couple weeks for them to understand that they were not to get out of their beds when it was bedtime...but after that all went smoothly. They never even fell out of their beds. The only downside was that they woke up earlier in the morning (by an hour). Good luck!

I agree that moving him out of the crib is probably your best bet. We moved my oldest at 19 months because he was climbing out. He sleeps in a twin bed without the frame. We just bought a twin mattress for my 16 month old yesterday because we couldn't keep his big brother from climbing in the crib with him at bedtime and waking him up.

I just went through this with my 17-month-old! We chose to avoid any potential accidents that might happen crawling out of the crib and let him sleep on a mattress on the floor (we're in the process of building a bed).
It was a NIGHTMARE at first, but I found it was best to put him down, turn off the light, shut the door, and let him cry it out. Of course, no one like listening to a baby cry- my husband had the hardest time with it- but it only seemed to make things worse when we stayed in there to comfort him.
We still have some rough nights and frequently falls asleep on the floor behind the door, but things are settling down almost a month later. Today he went down for his naps happily and he slept 12 hours last night! Woo hoo! =)
Just be consistent and try to avoid doing things (like lying down with him) that will cause you more grief later. We tried everything we could think of before finally deciding to let him cry it out and, guess what? He's fine and things are going pretty well now.

I suggest moving him to a toddler bed now. My oldest son climbed out of his crib at 17 months and it was a safey issue with him. You will have more time now to work with him on staying in his bed (I had to stand outside the bedroom door and put him back to bed for nearly an hour some nights for the first several weeks) than you will when the babies are here. He can understand what you're telling him and will be fine.

I would go ahead and move him to a toddler bed or even just a mattress on the floor. From what you say, he is getting in and out of the crib as he pleases anyway, so getting rid of the crib would prevent the risk of injury if he falls. And I also think it would be easier to transition him to a big boy bed now, than later after your twins arrive. (congrats!!!)

Hi L.,

I was so nervous to take my little one out of the crib because I was so sure that she'd never stay in bed. As it turned out, I ended up with an easy transition. She'd even stay in the bed in the morning and call for me to come and get her. It was like she had invisible railings.

The thing that I did that made me most comfortable about the switch was to basically make her room into one big crib. The only things in her room are the toddler bed, stuffed animals and her dresser (anchored to the wall). All of the outlets are protected, and her lamp and cd player are on the dresser with the outlet behind it. So, there's really not much chance of her to getting hurt. This made me much more comfortable about just closing the door and letting her work it out on nights when she's fighting going to bed.

So prepare for the worst and hope for the best. I really agonized over the switch for a couple of months. Then when I did it, it turned out to be easy as pie. Good Luck.

Congratulations on the twins! I think it's time to transition your son to either a toddler bed or a regular bed. My son did the same thing at 18 months. We actually started him with a mattress on the floor and then switched to a toddler bed. The mattress on the floor is another option. We got our toddler bed used and if you think you might use it someday for the twins then it's a worthwhile investment. It is a safety issue--it would be very easy for him to make a misstep and fall even though he appears to know what he's doing. He's also too young to learn that it's not "an acceptable thing to do" as your husband wants. I didn't try the crib tent because my son was very active and I figured if he could get out of his crib at 18 months he could probably figure how to get out of or destroy the crib tent. It also seemed like a short amount of time that I would use it. Good luck!

L.,

I am not a mom of mutliples but, I do have seven kids. I am not sure what your situation is or plans are but, I have heard and seen people putting twins in one crib for a time. Saying that I will put this out there. We have a babee tenda crib which is GREAT!! It has a box spring and mattress, it starts as a crib then you can transition it to use the door on the side, then turn to a toddler bed a twin bed and or a daybed. We have had ours since number one and have used it with everykid. We have naturally needed to purchase other beds but, it has been worth every penny.

Best Wishes to you and yours and good luck with everything to come in August!!

I think you answered your own question. It's a good time to transition anyway, and the safety factor is really the biggest concern. We moved my daughter into a bed at 1 because she was crawling out. It doesn't take much for a child to lose their balance and fall on their head. I'd transition now so that he doesn't feel like he's being kickd out because of the new babies. It'll take a while for him to get used to it anyway and it could be rough on you parents for a while until he gets the hang of sleeping without those rails around him, and the freedom of getting in/out with ease. The transition of infants in the house will be hard enough. As far as the infants go, I've been told that with multiples, they really sleep better together so I'd plan on having them share a crib for as long as possible too.

Either way you choose, you will be teaching him to stay in bed, so you might as well go with the big boy bed!

Wow... I feel for you L.! All I have to say is that you need to line up some help for you when those twinnies arrive!! Hopefully you have some great family close by that can help you out. My daughter crawled out of her crib at 18 mon.- we did put her in a toddler bed. We went through some long nights- she fell asleep crying by her door a time or two. But eventually she got through it. If you feel like you want to make the change, obviously do it before August. Or try the crib tent! That would probably make it easier for you- which you will need easy come Aug. My twins were born when my daughter was almost 3 years old. I basically had my mother or mother-in-law heping at my house for a good 5-6 weeks. Good luck to you- remember, this too shall pass!

When you transition him to a bed, try putting up a gate in the doorway to his room. That way you don't have to shut the door completely, but he still has to stay in his room. It's like his room is his crib. We used an extra tall baby gate because our son could climb over the regular kind.

I agree with the toddler or twin bed. My two oldest are 17 months apart and when my daughter was ready to move into the crib from the bassenet I put a twin mattress and box springs on the floor until he got use to not rolling off onto the floor which only took a night or two. Then for his second birthday I bought him bunkbeds since we lived in a trailer with small rooms. He did great on the bottom bunk, top bunk was off limits until he was a bit older. As far as him getting up, almost all children will try this, it is fun to finally have this control. You might have to put him back in bed and remind him that this is sleep time. One of my favorite memories of my daughter was when she came and sit by me on the couch, just laughing and laughing, until I finally figured out why she was laughing... I had put her to bed and she got away with coming out and sitting with me. She wasn't ever a good one for sleeping, she thought she would miss something. To make things easier for her I would turn on a cassette (showing my age aren't I?) and give her a book, telling her that she didn't have to go right to sleep, but she did have to stay in bed. This way she had control over when she would go to sleep and I knew that it doesn't take long laying still to make a tired girl fall asleep.

I never had twins so I can't tell you what is best for that.

Good luck.

What I did with my daughter was this (at the time she was the same age): I gave her a todler bed to sleep on once I moved into a place of my own. She did not like it at all the first little bit. The first night I had to rock her to sleep and then put her into the bed. The only problem then was trying to find her the next morning cause she had fallen off the bed and onto the floor. I ended up finding her under the bed as I had frantically searched my whole apartment for her. After about 2 weeks she quit falling off the bed and realized that I wasn't going to rock her to bed everynight.

Another thing that you can do is put the todler bed into his room and slowly transition him into it. You will have to start by putting a baby gate in the doorway so he doesn't go anyware that is unsafe if he does get out of bed. I don't suggest just shutting the door cause of safety issues, especially since he cannot open the door if their is an emergency. When my daughter was 3 1/2 was when we finally put her into a twin bed just cause that way she was sleeping on a bed before hand and then I didn't have to wake up to a big thud on the floor.

Good luck and I hope some of this advice will work out for you. A.

My son was in a bed just before 20 months. He, however, was pretty good at going to bed.

I still think, since you have twins on the way it would be best to transition him now. You will probably have a few nights of putting him back in his bed many, many, many times. But you'd probably rather have a few sleepless nights BEFORE the twins arrive as those will be sleepless enough and you don't need to deal with a bed transition at that time too.

I've read a few books on several aspects of sleep an sleep habits and if you really stick with it, you should be able to have your son staying in bed in a week or so...but you could be putting him back into bed 40+ times at first. Keep a log and you'll see that it's less each night and he'll eventually get the point.

My son starting climbing out of everything at 17 months, and he destroyed the crib tent! We got him a toddler bed, but he is way too young for that. We went to WalMart and got a little tent, it's 5X6, and only 4 feet high, and only cost like 18 bucks. His crib mattress fits in there and he absolutely loves it. This may sound strange, but it's the only thing I could think of to keep him safe! Good Luck!

My daughter was 20 months old when she, too, started climbing out of her crib. We switched to a "big girl" bed at that time. We got a daybed so she was enclosed on three sides. It had a trundle underneath so we pulled that part way out until she got used to being in the bed and we were fairly certain she wasn't going to roll out in the middle of the night. She actually slept better when she didn't feel the need to escape.

Time for a toddler bed and a door gate, L..
Almost two is not too young for a little bed. Our crib turned into a toddler bed, so it wasn't a huge adjust ment for our little ones. They were both in toddler beds around that age. If it's low to the ground, like all toddler beds are, just put a bed rail up on the side away from the wall. That way they'll get used to the new set-up slowly. You won't need the rail for long. Have fun with it!

L.- congrats and keep trying.
My twins were out of cribs at 9mo- we just railed a double and they were great. Hated running into the sides and woke up all the time.
Get yourself into a twins club if you're not!
We have great ones in the metro area if you're from mpls area.
About me- 47yo mom of almost 7 yo twin girls, med. prof. and wellness coach.
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It's time to give him a twin bed so that he is safe when he will, inevitably, climb out L.. Punishment won't work on a two year old ~ nurturing will.

So you are going to have twins soon... now more than ever a sweet and loving bedtime routine that ensures he is asleep before you leave the room will help him to stay in bed. Consider the following:

Children need their brain activity to slow down in order to calm down their bodies for a good night's sleep:

Pick out CHAPTER books that are calm but interesting: Winnie the Pooh, Francis, Little Bear (boys LOVE Little Bear). Tuck him into bed ("the story won't start until you are tucked in...") and sit by the bed (or in it) and read aloud, slowly and softly.

Show him the pictures if you want to but don't let him touch the book - this is story time and he needs to create the pictures in his head.

He will most likely fall asleep before you are done reading for the night, of course, so try to remember where you left off.

If he doesn't fall asleep before the end of he chapter, read another OR sing him a sweet bedtime song or two. Mom's bedtime songs are the best! If you feel you can't sing, bring a tape/cd player into the room and put on quiet word-free music. He'll love falling asleep with the music and the images of his new book friends in his head.

Also, get him into the habit of choosing one of his favorite stuffed animals or dolls to listen to the story with him in his bed so he has a story buddy. He may change animals/dolls with every story, or may choose the same one for an eternity. This will be the last thing he will do before climbing into bed... knowing that his friend is missing the story will give him a feeling of importance and reverence.

Now HE is in charge of someone else who NEEDS him to be in bed in order to have their own good bedtime experience. When he has someone to sleep with and nurture, his bed will become an important place for him to be.

I would transition him to a bed before the twins. I think it will be harder if you wait and you won't be able to watch to monitor as much to see when he is climbing.

My friends were in a similar situation. They removed everything from the room except furniture. All the toys, books, diapering products, anything a child could see as entertaining were out, so he didn't have the option of playing instead of sleeping. They also saftly latched his dresser so he couldn't pull all his clothes out. He isn't able to open the bedroom door so he has to stay in there until someone lets him out.

Obviously you'll have an adjustment time. I would advice not laying with him. That will be an even harder habit to break.