transitioning to beds advice

I know this has been discussed a thousand times, but now that I am dealing with it, was hoping you can still take some time to answer.

I knew this day was coming, but hoping I could push it off for as long as I could, but today my DD climbed out of her crib in 2 secs. right after being put in.

my first step was just to take her mattress out of her crib and lay it next to her crib, and leave the room, Her mattress ended up being right next to her sister's mattress, so after a 15 mins of being silly together, I heard crying about hair pulling, I went upstairs, and surprisingly she was still on her mattress, I tried rubbing her back, but the girl who was still in her crib was getting too upset that I was there and not taking her out. I ended up moving the mattress around. of course both girls, told me right away that now there was room for DD2 to take her mattress out as well, I decided why not give it a try, so they were both on their mattresses on the floor. I stayed in the room with them, I couldn't be next to both of them. but I took turns rubbing their backs, of course as one was almost sleeping her sis, would whisper her name, and call her, or one would bang and distract the other.

Finally, DD2, just got too silly and I dumped her and her mattress (not in that order) back into the crib, left DD1 on her mattress, not near DD2's crib, and left the room, obviously DD2 was really mad, and screamed, but eventually she fell asleep. It all seeems quiet, but I have not checked where DD1 fell asleep, I know I heard DD2 trying to convince her to get her paci for her etc.

This whole process took closer to 2 hours, which is usually most of the nap time anyhow. I had tried to put them down a little early, because they had a late nite, and I really need to leave the house soon.

What's the best way to keep them in beds? Do I need to sit there in the room with them, for an hour till they fall asleep? I think in a way, my being there was more distracting, cause eventhough I kept my responses minimal, they still get a response out of me, should I see if I can get away with keeping DD2 in her crib, and work with them one at a time?

Any ideas or advice would be appreciated.

 

We went with the put-them-to-bed-and-let-them-sort-it-out-themselves approach. We toddler proofed the heck out of their room, did our regular bed time routine & left them to it. We had a few weeks of bad sleep but as the novelty wore off, they went back to their usual routine. I would say about half the time now they don't nap in the afternoon but they still go to their room for 2 hours - they're allowed to "talk quiet", look at books or play with their stuffies. When they don't nap, we put them to bed an hour earlier.

 

We are doing basically what Rachel did. We're about 6 weeks in now and bedtime is getting a little less bonkers. I think it's just one of those developmental things they have to figure out. We were almost at the point of separating their bedrooms so they'd get some sleep, but now that it's getting darker a bit earlier they're settling down faster.

 

Ours are in separate rooms so USUALLY the shenanigans are pretty minimal and don’t impact the other if one wants to sleep. At my parents’ house they sleep together and like Rachel said the novelty does wear off in time, but yes baby proof the heck out of that room. My step mom called and said they somehow got the hinge pin out of the door of their 103 year old house that she can only get out with a hammer and screwdriver! They are resourceful little monkey’s!!

 

Ditto. Just took everything out, put them in bed, and leave. It took about 2 weeks but they even started napping again (at least for a month).

 

We're just starting the process ourselves. Took the fronts off the cribs yesterday and took them up for nap a little early to get used to the change. Had already taken the changing table and toy box out. We went in a few times to tell them to settle down but it wasnt too bad. Good luck!

 

It was funny, when we went to go to bed, she got all upset, that her mattress was out of her crib, and insisted on moving back to her crib. In the morning even though she can climb out, she doesn't climb out.

this afternoon, I ended up with one out of her crib again, and let the other one cry in her crib, for a short time.

I really was not ready to move them, so I didn't do any prep.

but so far so good

 

I agree with the "put them to bed and let them sort it out" thing. We switched to toddler beds around their second birthday and it took awhile for the novelty of getting up to wear off, but I keep their room pitch black so they really didn't play too much. Now, they like to lay on the floor and look under the door and call us. We've started telling them they are going to sleep on the cold hard floor if they get up. But if they stay in bed they can sleep with their nice warm covers and their "guys" (aka stuffies). They always get up right after we put them to bed, but I just remind them (under/through the door) that they are going to have to sleep on the cold hard floor if they stay up, and 9/10 times they'll get back into their beds themselves.

 

Ahhh...YES, I know what you are going through. The switch to toddler beds has been more difficult than I imagined. We did it about 3 weeks ago and my DS is fine. Loves his new bed, wants to sleep and basically just went back to schedule after a week of 'partying' with his sister every night at bed time. My DD is a different story. won't lie on her bed, screams her head off every night. I believe that we made a big mistake with how we handled this - we were not consistent at all. First we moved her to a playpen in another room, then when that didn't work my DH would sleep on the floor next to her, or on really bad nights take her out of the room and sit with her. We talked about splitting the kids up as DD was starting to wake up DS. We talked about changing the bed she has & we did a lot of stuff we agreed we don't do (taking them out of their room at night, sitting by them at night) and so on. Then we decided to go back to basics and just let her cry it out - if she wants to sleep on the floor so be it. The first nights were brutal. Sounded like she was being tortured, screaming and crying under the door and yelling for us, waking up in the night (usually when she rolled into the door), but it is FINALLY getting better each night. Just need to be patient I guess. I will admit that I hate to hear my kids cry so I actually have to go sit outside when we put them down so I don't hear it!! So sad.