Walk me through the crib-to-free range bed transition

mingaling2 · November 2011

Mia is now swinging her leg up over the crib rail, and it's only a matter of time for that spider monkey to flip over it. We can just remove the side of the crib to make it a toddler bed, but my question is how do you contain them? Door closed or door open with baby gate?

Daisy22 · November 2011

Bailey has been in his twin bed since 13.5 months. We close the door not only to make sure he stays in but also for fire safety. We also closes bryce's door as well. His whole room is toddler proof and there is nothing in there that could hurt him. With all that said for naps and night time he rarely gets out of his bed. He's a big sleeper and will wait on us to get him from naps and in the morning.

keg · November 2011

We've always closed the girls' door at night and kept doing that after we transitioned to the toddler beds and I added a childproof door knob cover on the inside of their door too. We toddler-proofed the entire room at that point too--removed a double bed that had been in there and a rocker/recliner (which we've since put back in because they don't bother it when we're not in the room). We also made sure the dresser and bookcase were anchored well.

At night, my girls are good about staying in bed and they generally stay in bed in the morning after they wake up for a while (I usually have to wake them up on the weekdays). Then they get up and get books of their shelf to "read". Naps are more of an issues but I'm not sure how much that is toddler bed vs. being in the room with sis. At the moment I seperate them at naptime and one sometimes sleeps in her room in her bed and the other sleeps in a pack n play in a different room.

frlcb · November 2011

keg:
We've always closed the girls' door at night and kept doing that after we transitioned to the toddler beds and I added a childproof door knob cover on the inside of their door too. We toddler-proofed the entire room at that point too--removed a double bed that had been in there and a rocker/recliner (which we've since put back in because they don't bother it when we're not in the room). We also made sure the dresser and bookcase were anchored well.

Same here. We didn't do a toddler bed, just went straight to a regular bed, but we have always slept with doors closed. Once he was in his bed we put doorknob covers on the inside of his bedroom door and his bathroom door (so he couldn't get in). His room is childproofed, but honestly he never gets out of bed on his own. Even now, and he is 3.5.

ally-cat · November 2011

We took off the side of the crib and use the toddler portion. We have a baby gate in the door so he can't wander. : )

We will be transitioning to a dbl bed for Max (convertible) soon though, and moving his room so we can use the nursery for the new baby.

mrsd0907 · November 2011

Like pp, we had always kept him door shut. Once he climbed out, we moved him straight into a twin bed. We told him the expectations every time he took a nap or went to bed for about the first week, but he never got out of it once we put him to bed. He will occasionally get up and knock on the door once he's awake in the morning but we usually hear him first. Now that Parker is in the room, he likes to go wake up baby brother. Such fun. It really wasn't as hard of a transition as I thought it was going to be.

K&P414 · November 2011

I chime in since we're different. I usually close the door but don't shut it all the way. As far as containing her I just do the silent treatment thing and pick her up as soon as I hear her come out of her room and swoop her back to bed. She does get out of the bed when she wakes up in the morning and comes straight to our room if we aren't up and moving around.

hthomas02 · November 2011

we've always closed the doors so we continued to do so. and we just took the front off the cribs to begin with. Finn didn't have any trouble with the transition. Riley is a crazy child and he took that as his ticket to not stay in bed. But he couldn't open the door, so the worst he would do was trash his room and pass out.

decaturbride · November 2011

At first we just closed the door because he couldn't open it. Then later on, I wrongly assumed that if Owen woke up, he would come straight to find me. I woke up to him playing with his musical potty at 4 am. Gave me a heart attack! So, then we put the baby gate on his door. I usually wouldn't put it on until I went to bed. He likes the door open now until he falls asleep. The last few months he has grown out of wandering. He hardly ever wakes up and gets out of bed, but he will come to get in bed with us now so I don't worry much. Plus, we added chain locks to all the outside doors so he can't get out of the house without us. That's reassuring.

The transition really went way smoother than I ever thought possible!

lindzed · November 2011

I went straight to a twin bed on the floor (we did this cool bed that could convert to bunks from ikea ) I close the door and have childproof doorknob cover on the inside to make sure he didn't accidentally lock himself inside. You can also replace the doorknob with one that doesn't have a lock. Be careful about just turning it around. My son accidentially locked me in one day when I tried that. You can order doorknob covers on amazon that cover the lock. I couldn't find the ones that cover locks anywhere in atlanta.

Other big tip is take the crib down and get it out of site.

seansgirl2006 · November 2011

K&P414:
I chime in since we're different. I usually close the door but don't shut it all the way. As far as containing her I just do the silent treatment thing and pick her up as soon as I hear her come out of her room and swoop her back to bed. She does get out of the bed when she wakes up in the morning and comes straight to our room if we aren't up and moving around.

We did something similar to this. When we switched Ethan he did awesome the first night. Never got out. Then the excitement of a big boy bed wore off and he kept getting out and hanging out by his door. He would lay on the floor and kick it, call for us, put his little fingers under it, talk to the dogs through it... It was funny but then I was ready for it to stop. He did this for several nights and fell asleep there. It was hard to open the door (because he was laying against it) to get him up and into bed. After a few days of this I decided to make him stay in his bed. We watched him on the monitor and every time he got out we went in, no fun just business and said "You need to stay in your bed." and put him back in. He did it for awhile that night but soon gave up and stayed in his bed. Ever since then he has never gotten out. Even when he is restless and having trouble falling asleep (sometimes at nap), he will wiggle around and get wild, even pretty much stand on his head and do somersaults in there but he never gets out. In the morning, he lays there and calls for us until we come and get him out. So we never had to do the baby gate or door knob locks or anything. It felt kind of like sleep training that night but it worked for us. Oh, and he is in one of those little toddler beds.

Kerrin · November 2011

We had a "permanent" baby gate with a swinging door. worked like a charm and we used it with both kids. i kept the room door open, or cracked open.

myrall · November 2011

We lucked out with a very easy transition. Took the crib down completely and put up her bed. Nighttime was no problem, but the kid refused to nap there for a couple days. Just too much excitement, I guess. We close the door completely so our critters don't wander in there and wake her up. It's only since Cecil's been born that she gets out of bed and comes in our room when she's awake.

mingaling2 · November 2011

Thank you all! I'm going to put my money on the "trash her room until she passes out" type of scenario, but you are giving me hope

GAGirlyGirl · November 2011

We are so not there yet I just had to say....LOL at " free range".

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