Moving to bed..what Should I Expect?

I feel for you. For us, this was not an easy transition. For others, it may be, and I hope that's the case for you! We transitioned my daughter to a toddler bed at 25 months, after she climbed out of her crib about 3 times in 5 minutes. The first night was pretty much fine. And then it got much worse. I literally spent 4 hours getting her to sleep the second night.

What finally worked for us was putting her in bed after our normal night routine, then sitting just outside of her door, within sight, until she was asleep. I've gotten a LOT of reading done in the past few months! And truthfully, I kind of like having that reading time. I've moved further and further out of her sight, so that now, I'm actually in the next room and she can't see me. If she gets out of bed, I tell her to get back in bed. She usually asks me to rub her back, so I do that the FIRST time she gets out of bed, and the first time only. After that, I threaten that if she gets out bed, I'll close the door (she hates having the door closed). If she gets out of bed again, I follow through. Follow-through is so important, because at this age, they understand that manipulation works! That's why it's necessary to not keep singing, rubbing backs, etc. when they ask, because that could go on all night, and will teach a toddler that they can get their way if they pressure you. So, if she gets out of bed a second time, I close her door for about 15 seconds, then open it and tell her that I warned her she needed to stay in bed, she got out of bed, and I had to close the door. After that, she typically stays in bed and goes to sleep. It may take her 30 minutes to actually go to sleep, but she'll stay in bed and rest.

I moved my son out of his crib into a twin bed with railings at 2 last year. He instantly did not like it. He SCREAMED when we shut the door. He didn't feel secure in the bed. So, I improvised and tied his crib bumpers around the railings. Where there were gaps, I put pillows. After I did that, there were no problems whatsoever. He felt safe and secure. After he was used to that (about 2 months or so), we took off the bumpers and pillows. I have a friend who did that same for her son and it worked too. Good luck!

Hey C.,

My daughter loved her toddler bed. I guess she felt like such a big girl in it. She really like that she could get in and out by herself and I admit that was her favorite past time for the longest. I was amazed at how entertaining her bed would be for her. It also worked really great for her, and she slept better in it because when she moved she did not hit the wooden rails. Even though we had the pads in her crib, when she would turn around or roll over she would hit the sides. The toddler bed just seemed to give her more space. It was great for us! She slept better and we slept better.

Have a great one!
A.
www.free2Bmom.com

I hurt my back over Thanksgiving and couldn't bend down to pick up or put our toddler in his crib anymore. He was waking up once or twice a night (at the time) because he was teething. So we put him in a toddler bed and he was only 15 months old. He did okay with it. It took us a few weeks to get him to stay there when we put him down to go to sleep.... he'd get up and walk to his door and call for us... lol. But we just did what "Super Nanny" did. Told him it was time for bed and put him back. After about a week or two he got the drift and now we just lay him down and he stays there.

We do keep his bedroom door open until he goes to sleep because he didn't like it being closed.

Good luck!!

I think it depends on what kind of sleeper your child is. I have one friend who really fought with her son about the toddler bed, but he's always been a cruddy sleeper.

My son has always been a GREAT sleeper and we had no problems. Twice, he got out of bed and tried to open the door, but was met by the baby gate. Once we're ready to potty train, we'll move the gate to the top of the stairs so he can still reach the potty, but no problems what-so-ever. He LOVES his Big Boy bed and often wants to skip bathtime and go straight to 'night night'. :)

We moved both of ours at 17 months with no problems. Baby 1 was moved that early because we were preparing for baby 2. We figured it worked so well the first time that we might as well do the same with baby 2. Both experiences were similar, so here's what we did with our first child: We set the new bed up in the room and left it there for her to investigate for a couple days, but still put her to bed in the crib. She actually went straight to a full-sized bed (which had been our guest bed). On day 2, after she fell asleep at nap time, we moved her (still asleep) to the big bed so she would wake up there. We did that a couple days (day 2 and day 3) at nap time and she was fine. At the end of Day 3 we simply put her to bed in the new bed and it was done. My husband took the crib down while I took her out somewhere and we put a Little Tykes kitchen center in its place. She never even noticed the crib was gone -- she went straight to the little kitchen and started playing!
With our son, we needed the crib mattress for his toddler bed, so we simply replaced the crib with the toddler bed. Didn't remove the sheet or anything, and arranged his blankets and toys just like they had been in the crib. It just so happened that he fell asleep in the car on our way home from an errand, so I put him in it while he was asleep. It was a fire truck shaped bed, so it was a pretty exciting place for him to wake up! He loved it instantly. Also, he was used to sleeping with the door shut, so we went ahead and shut it. However, I was a little afraid of night-time wanderings, so we put a door knob cover on the INside of his door so he couldn't get out. (a baby gate wouldn't work because he could climb it!)