Oh joy. Big girl beds. I need advice!

Re: Oh joy. Big girl beds. I need advice!

• doodlebug914 member

  May 2011

  We kept the monitor in Ethan's room and put one of the door knob covers on the inside of his door.  We switched him to a twin with a stepstool to climb in.  I didn't use a side rail, just tucked a pillow under the fitted sheet to give a little boundary on the side (and we still do it because he rolls around).  We never had any climbing issues with the dresser.  Good luck!!

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• Klmorgan83 member

  May 2011

  1.  We went straight to a full size bed, so no help with the toddler bed.

  2.  Noah's clothes are all still in his drawers, he's only touched them a handful of times, so it hasn't been an issue for us.  We do have one drawer on his dresser that I keep lotion, sunscreen and stuff in...it's got a lock on it so he can't make a mess in the middle of the night!  We've never kept any toys in his room, but he does have books that are within he reach.  Having those have actually been good for us, sometimes when he wakes up early he'll get books out and go back into his bed, or he'll get some during nap time and look at them until he falls asleep.  We've never had a problem with him looking at them and not going to bed.

  3.  I have a wild child and he doesn't mess with our pressure mounted gate.  He's never attempted to climb it.  We do have a gate at the top of the stairs, but it's hardly every closed.  We still keep a monitor in his room, so we know when he's awake anyways.

  4.  I don't know if you can make it fun, other than playing up the big girl thing.  But even if she has trouble, eventually it should get better!  We had a rough few days with him climbing out of bed.  We stayed very tough about going into his room every time he climbed out, putting him right back in and we didn't say anything to him.  Just did it over and over again until he fell asleep.  Eventually he learned that he has to stay there.  Now that he can climb back in it himself, we know he'll eventually fall asleep.  He gets in and out of bed a few times to stand by the door, but he always goes back to bed on his own now.  It does get easier!

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• kel716 member

  May 2011

  hav2run:

  1.  We are doing the toddler bed because DD is too small to climb in and out of a full sized bed.  I don't want to put a mattress on the floor, so it seems like the practical route for us.  Are there any hazards to toddler beds that are not obvious?  Even though she's going to be in a 'big girl bed', they really still want the security of some kind of wall...  So some sort of rail may still be needed. 

  2.  Obviously, we should strap the taller furniture to the wall since climbing is her new thing.  Should we consider removing anything from her room?  Clothing in drawers? books? toys?  ETC?   We took out anything B could use to climb on stuff as he transitioned.  At one point his room was entirely bare, but that was extreme.  When he started making toys out of doors, blinds, and the wall, I put back some of his toys.  I still have out the middle shelf on his 3 shelf bookcase.  We have a TV and a piggy bank on the top of it, and I don't want him to get to it by climbing.  We do have some toys in his room.  Honestly, he does well with bedtime..  he lays down when we're in there and doesn't get up until we get him in the AM.  They're so used to being greeted, a lot of times they will still wait for you.  You may be pleasantly surprised. 

  3.  I fear our pressure mounted doorway gate might not work well once she is able to get out of bed easily.  How do we keep her in the room?  I need peace of mind that she is safe should she get up in the middle of the night.  We have a solid gate at the top of the stairs.  We put a child proof door knob on the inside of the door.  Until we're night time potty trained, we'll continue with it.  We also always make sure the gate is latched at the top of our steps, just in case. 
  

  4.  How do we keep this transition fun for her?  I fear a total meltdown when we convert the bed.  She is very into habit and routine, and this is going to be a big change for her.  She won't even nap on our bed or the sofa.  I think I'd continue with your routine, and make sure she knows her bed is in there early in the day.  I'd practice laying in her bed so she's used to it throughout the day.  I'd talk up the 'special big birl bed' tomorrow (within reason of course) just to kind of prepare her.  It may take a few nights for her to get used to it, but remember 'this too shall pass' 

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• kabel member

  May 2011

  hav2run:

  So, we are one of the lucky ones (IMO) who made it almost to age 3 with the crib.  DD has decided she is no longer scared to climb out.  So we will be converting her bed down to a toddler bed this weekend.  I am just so excited (sarcasm) about this change.  So here are my questions...

  1.  We are doing the toddler bed because DD is too small to climb in and out of a full sized bed.  I don't want to put a mattress on the floor, so it seems like the practical route for us.  Are there any hazards to toddler beds that are not obvious?  We didn't buy the toddler bed conversion rails for DD's crib because they wanted an extra $100 on top of the $100 we paid for the full-size conversion rails, so we bought the Dora toddler bed from Walmart.  She rolled all over the place in her crib so I thought we might have to buy an extra rail for the bed, but DD has not needed it.
  

  2.  Obviously, we should strap the taller furniture to the wall since climbing is her new thing.  Should we consider removing anything from her room?  Clothing in drawers? books? toys?  ETC? We removed most of the items from her room, including the toys in her toy bin.  We replaced them with "quiet toys" (namely books and stuffed animals) in case she would get out of bed and play.  I didn't want any distractions as we transitioned and it was worked out well.
  

  3.  I fear our pressure mounted doorway gate might not work well once she is able to get out of bed easily.  How do we keep her in the room?  I need peace of mind that she is safe should she get up in the middle of the night.  We have a solid gate at the top of the stairs. We are lucky in this regard... DD's bedroom door sticks just enough that she can't open it from the inside herself.  However, we do shut all the doors in the house and gate off our kitchen just in case (we only have one floor).
  

  4.  How do we keep this transition fun for her?  I fear a total meltdown when we convert the bed.  She is very into habit and routine, and this is going to be a big change for her.  She won't even nap on our bed or the sofa.  DD's transition went as well as it could have possibly could have!  We took her with us to buy her bed and new bedding.   She watched us put it all together and I let her help me make the bed.  Then we let her play on it/lay in it for awhile, but then went back to our normal routine until bedtime.  She seemed a little nervous at first and actually cried for a minute after I put her to bed, but she was asleep 10 minutes later when I peeked in to check on her.  It's been a few weeks since we've moved her and she still has not figured out that she can get up before I come to get her!
  

  I have to be over thinking this, right?  I way over thought potty training, and it was a simple thing despite all the fretting I did.  I would love to hear your tips and words of wisdom on how you transitioned out of the crib.  Especially from those who waited awhile and transitioned older toddlers who are stubborn about routines.  I think this might be an interesting adventure.  We too thought it would be a lot harder than it was.  We just established a new routine (she gets up, goes potty, comes back and makes her bed with my help, puts the stuffed animals she slept with in her toy bin, etc) and she hasn't looked back.  Hope it is as painless for you as it was for us!  GL!
  

  

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• tiffyr0se member

  May 2011

  I switched Cole when he turned two.  Cole is in a twin sized bed with a rail.   Originally I thought I was going to gate off his room, but we didn't end up doing that.  Decided he didn't need to be trapped in his room.  He knows he is supposed to stay in his bed.  The first night, he got out of bed about 8 times.  Each time, I said "bed" and walked him back to his bed and tucked him back in.  No extra words or play.  The second night he got up once.  Now, he very rarely gets out of bed. In 6 months, he has gotten up and fallen back to sleep on the couch twice, and came up to my bed with his pillow twice.  Other than that, he sleeps in his bed everynight and we don't worry about it.  We do have a monitor in his room, so we can hear him.  I also close the door to his playroom everynight, just so he doesn't get any ideas.  He is allowed to 'play' at naptime/bedtime, but he is not allowed to get out of bed.  If he gets out of bed, again I say "bed" and make him climb back in, then leave.  The only exception is if he is sick, dirty diaper, or has to potty. 

  I keep his really tempting toys out of his room, ie, his Mobigo, Tag Readers...anything he would stay awake to play with.  For the most part, the only toys in his room are books, puzzles, and trains because trains are everywhere.  I don't mind if he plays with books and trains in bed because he will still fall asleep.  But that's not a safety issue, just a distraction issue.

   

  Good luck with the transistion.  Hope it goes well.

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