Question about transition to toddler bed

Hi ladies, I am visiting from the 2nd year board. My B/G twins are 20 months old and my son is just about to start climbing out of his crib. My daughter is not to that point yet. They have separate cribs but share a bedroom. My question is should I transition my son to a bed first and leave daughter in crib or it is easier to transition both at the same time? I am worried that if they are both able to get out of bed then they will atart playing in their room rather than going to sleep. and maybe my daughter will be easier to transition later if she sees him sleeping in the bed. Not sure what I should do! Any advice or input would be so appreciated!

Kristin

 

For us crib tents were our sanity saver!! We tried to transition to toddler beds at that age and it was a disaster! I hope your transition goes much smoother then ours at that age.

 

As young as he is I would probably try a crib tent first. If you can't/don't want to do that then I would just switch him. You are right to think that them both being 'free' is more likely to lead to them playing around. Switch him first and hold off on switching her until you have to. Hopefully with how young they are she won't really care about the difference.

 

I read some things about the crib tents regarding their safety once that scared me so I don't feel comfortable using them....

 

What I did was remove the mattress support and put the crib mattress directly on the floor. This and this is what it looked like. Not very pretty, but it did give me an extra 3 inches and there was no way they could climb out.

I did not want to go the crib tent route because of the expense.

We did not convert to toddler beds until their 3rd birthday and the transition went fairly smooth.

I guess you have to take into consideration your DS. Do you feel he will just play around now that he has his freedom or maybe he'll adjust easier because his sister is still in her crib.

 

Hi there,

I have no idea whether this would work with your kids, but I am using 'sleeping bags' for my kids to sleep in - or I have also heard them called Gro-bags (I think that is a brand name though). In the winter we have heavier ones, but in the summer we just bought really light linen ones that won't get too hot. the reason this is helpful is that my kids are not able to climb out of their cribs while they are wearing them. It is definitely helping to extend the time we can keep them in their cribs before moving to beds. The ones I got are quite long so it is actually quite hard for my kids to get out of them too. They have managed a few times but that is their big adventure if they do get them off - so no climbing after that!

Anyway, just a thought...in some ways I am excited to get my kids into their toddler beds but it seems everyone I talk to highly recommend waiting until they are a little older and seeing as this is working for us so far I figure why rock the boat!

Hope this may help!
Michelle

 

If one is repeatedly climbing out, then it's time for conversion to toddler bed or crib tent.

I would suggest crib tent so both are still secure & safe in their cribs.


We converted both cribs to toddler beds at 26 months and had to seperate them (different rooms) at 27 months. Still to this day they can't nap or sleep in the same room.

When you make the plunge to do toddler beds, make the room as safe as possible. Remove Everything! We had to move out every single piece of furniture. And had to move out all the books & toys. They even figured out how to take down the blackout curtains.

Good luck!

 

there are pros and cons to tents... if you do one, I would do both... as if one child is free in the room, they could climb on top of the other tent and it will convex into the crib... kinda scary!

anyway, like pp said, we used Sleep Sacks forever!!! always had to have them on, you can even put them on backwards so that once they figure out the zippers they can't unzip themselves... and someone here had the brainy idea to put them on inside out and backwards to slow down the zipper escape too!!

with the sleep sacks ours couldn't hike their legs up and over and it really put off the need for the crib tents for a while.

I tried at 2 yrs to transition to toddler beds, it was DISASTROUS!!! there was NO WAY to keep both in their beds, and it was exhausting. of course depends on your kids personalities and yours... my nanny was able to do it... but not me... (not patient enough or calm enough!!)

I have heard that if you transition earlier, it's better, like they don't know any better... I wish you luck!!

 

We did crib tents too. At 20 months, my one girl was climbing out and I just felt she was too young for a toddler bed and I was not ready. LOL I was also concerned about the tents so I took extra rope/ties and secured the tent much better then the velcro that comes with the tents. There is no way ours are moving no matter how much they pull on it. The first few nights were an adjustment but now they love their princess tents as they call them. Whatever you decide to do Good luck!!