20 month old transition to twin bed

skibunny59 · November 2013

Hi Ladies,

I just wanted to get your opinion on this. DD is 20 months old. We are skipping the toddler bed and moving her right to a twin bed. Not sure if it's too early to do this. She has never really been fond of her crib. She actually cosleeps with us for most of the night (usually around midnight after she wakes up crying in her crib). DH doesn't want to cosleep anymore. I love cosleeping but I also don't want her in our bed forever so I realize we have to start working on getting her to sleep more in her own room.

We've never had success putting her down awake. We've always had to rock her to sleep and then lay her down asleep. We're thinking of doing a twin matress on the floor because:

1) I am short so it's easier to lay her down this way.

2) I am thinking when she wakes up at night, instead of bringing her into our bed I could lay down with her in her room and then remove myself once she falls back asleep.

If it works out then we will get a twin bed to put the matress on. I'm just a little nervous about the whole thing. She's not the kind of kid that would just play in her room or walk around the house in the middle of the night but you never know.

JENandJEH · November 2013

Like NicB, my DS seems to love his crib and sleeps great in there so we're in no hurry to switch him.

In your case, it may be worth a try but I would be afraid that, a) I would just fall asleep on the twin mattress with her and not remove myself therefore continuing to co-sleep but create the problem of her expecting me to sleep in her room with her, and b) unless you're willing to gate her in her room, what is to stop her from coming and crawling in bed with you when she wakes up?

A friend of mine has been waking up and finding her DD sleeping at the foot of the mattress and neither her or her DH realize she has gotten in bed at night. They're having a terrible time breaking this habit and have started gating her in her room which just led to more interrupted sleep.

eyenigh · November 2013

I'd also be sure that all of the furniture was securely anchored to the wall and I second a gate to make sure there are no late night wanderings. My son threw his leg over the side of the crib the other day so I'm now concerned that our days are numbered in there. I've already started taking safety precautions even though I'm not planning on transitioning him until I absolutely have to. I already had to remove the changing table (we haven't used it in months except for storage) because he's started scaling that like a monkey every time I turn my back.

tamararachel2 · November 2013

I don't have any advice, but keep an update because I'm curious as to how this will go for you. DS2 is only 13 months and we're trying to break the co-sleeping habit now. He starts off great in his bed. We can lay him down drowsy and he settles himself in his little corner of his crib. But then he's up screaming anywhere between midnight and 4 a.m. We would just bring him in our bed as we all get up at 5:30, but I want that habit to stop. I've started going in his room when he screams and I lay on the floor. I end up sleeping there, but after a while he stops crying and lays down. We aren't opposed to CIO, but this way he knows we aren't ignoring his cries.

ktpaladino · November 2013

My son was climbing out of his crib at 16 months so he's been in a full size platform bed ever since. We wanted to use the furniture we already had and not spend the money on a toddler bed. We put the toddler rails up and a body pillow across the bottom and he did fine. It was a very smooth transition. I don't think your LO would have any problems with the mattress elevated, and I also think that would help keep him in bed. Like PP said, if it's on the floor and he realizes he can get right up, you might be up many many times throughout the night, and if you're planning on laying down with him to get him back to sleep, you'll really only be moving the co-sleeping from one bed to another. We toddler proofed DS's room and have him gated in for safety and after a bit of training, it has worked wonderfully for us.

anna&jl2011 · November 2013

We were in a similar situation. DS was being rocked to sleep, put in his crib, waking up in the middle of the night, then into the bed with us. We ended up converting his crib to a toddler bed and he starting getting out of it and coming to our room. I finally decided to do some sleep training. Someone on the bump recommended sleep sense program. So that's the one we did. I chose to sit beside his bed and then move my chair instead of CIO. I no longer rock DS to sleep. I lay him in the toddler bed and leave, peeping in occasionally without him seeing me. He still isn't STTN though. He wakes up and comes to our bedroom and I take him back to his bed and he goes back to sleep. He's getting up much earlier around 5;30. Before he would sleep until 7.

janinekrause · November 2013

I agree with PP. I think there is a bigger sleep issue than the crib. If you switch your LO to a bed without any sort of sleeping changing or behavior change, you might be in the same boat. I would definitely consider sleep training of some sort.

I don't have much advice on bed (you got good advice above).

aglenn · November 2013

With DD we first converted her crib into a toddler bed and kept rocking until she was asleep or almost asleep. It was still a battle to get her to go to sleep and stay asleep in there. When we finally got her moved to a full size bed with rails (right after she hit 2 yo) she slept so much better! I am not sure if it was the more comfortable mattress, extra room, time/maturity, or some combination thereof but I was so relieved. We couldn't fit the glider plus full size bed in her room so we went to reading books in bed, cuddling and nursing for a few minutes, then I would get up and say good night. She rarely got up and came into our room during the night after that. We did put a gate up but in the hallway; our room was across from hers so if she got up she could come in our room but could not wander about the house.

With DS we are watching for furniture sales now and will go straight to a full size bed sometime in the next few months. We'll just have to babyproof his room well and put up the hallway gate again.

ashiscute · November 2013

I'm sort of confused. Are you planning to go to a twin bed to try to stop LO from co-sleeping? Because I'm not sure how having a bed that she can easily climb out of would help with that. I'd also be afraid that I'd fall asleep in her room in the middle of the night and just stay there. I think you're honestly just trading one set of sleep problems for another. I'm a firm believer in keeping them in their crib as long as possible (DD is 33 months and I haven't switched her yet). So, I'd maybe think of tackling the sleep issues instead of changing them.

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