Toddler Bed Issues/Transition

We are taking a road trip to see my parents for 4th of July. They don't have cribs at their house only toddler beds. I know they aren't ready and I was going to keep them in cribs for a long time, but now I'm thinking that since that's all they have to sleep on at my parent's house that we might have to make the transition here a bit sooner. We have the cribs that transition to toddler bed to full-size bed. They don't have safety rails and I couldn't find a toddler bed conversion kit for the crib either. What rails do I use? I've seen the ones at Wal-mart but they aren't terribly cute (yes, I want the rails to look nice <_< ). Also, for those of you that transitioned the twins to beds early how did it go? Am I in knee deep here?

 

I just transitioned mine to big boy/girl beds this past week. My son went into a twin bed with a rail across it. I just took the rail from the top bunk and put it on the bottom and he is doing well. He loves his bed. Since my daughter's crib converted into a toddler bed, we just did that. She is having a few more problems with the conversion. However, she is getting much better and I believe she will soon love her bed as much as her brother does. I don't have an ugly safety rail on her toddler bed either. I just put the mattress down as far as possibl, which left about six inches to the floor, and I put a thick sheepskin mat in front of her crib in case she falls out. Looks beautiful and so far no problems. However, I found her wandering around her room a couple times, but that's what I expected once we did the transition. I hope it goes well for you. IMO, doing a transition like this is harder on the parents than the children.

 

We are going to give it a try tonight. So, your cribs have no safety rails on them at all? We have the cribs set to the lowest setting, but if they roll out of bed it will be quite an ordeal. They move around in their sleep a lot.

 

I just wanted to say that you do not have to transition them just for a trip. I'm totally sure you know that but we tried to transition ours at 23 months and it went horribly horribly wrong! It was awful and the longest 7 days of my life!! I know many success stories but ours was not one of them! :laughing: However we do travel with them and we'll either use pack n plays or have them sleep on the floor. I would totally have them sleep in the toddler beds for the visit and if they do well there then I would make the change when I came back but I wouldn't burn them out on it before hand, kwim? If it's new then maybe they won't get into as much trouble and will actually sleep. Good luck!

 

Yes, my toddler bed has no rail on. I may be crazy but so far we haven't had a problem with her falling out of bed. I have also heard of people putting the mattress right on the floor, basically taking out the springlike metal piece of the crib and placing the crib mattress on the floor inside the toddler bed. I don't know if I am explaining that well but I didn't feel it necessary in our case. Perhaps you could try that.

 

We didn't try it out tonight because we were out too late. DH seems to think everything is going to be fine. I really don't want to switch them at all, but I would hate for them to not sleep while we were on vacation. We were going to try with no rails on because they really aren't that far off the ground.

 

The 7 days we did it, we didn't have any rails. I had one that fell out every night and the first night it scared her, but after that she just fell asleep where ever she landed. :laughing: Our biggest problem was the morning and the time they woke up--it was like 6am every morning and there is no, play quietly while mommy gets another 30 minutes of sleep :lol:

 

oh my... we did the transition at 25.5 months, one month ago in preparation for a vacation we're taking in a couple of weeks... I was freaked out that I'd be dealing with it on the cruise etc. we're going via a plane, so I didn't want to be treking a PNP all over...

anyway, the first couple of nights I had a foam mattress folded over in between their cribs so in case they fell it wouldn't be too bad. well... BAD MOVE! they thought it was a trampoline and would kinda dive off their cribs etc.

our twins have taken a good 3 to 4 weeks to settle into being free to roam before going to bed. even now its almost like they get wound up right before crashing.

once they are asleep their usually out for the night, so that's good. my dd fell out of bed a few times. but not recently. she even ended up crawling under the bed one time, freaked herself out... and she crawled under the changing table and pushed the drawer out... took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to get her out!

Ours have the safety rails, but they only go about 1/2 way, so it seems that the open part is very long, for now they are doing great though.

good luck! its been crazy for us... they were taking a 3hr nap in the afternoons and sleeping 11 hrs at night before I switched. Now its more like a 2 hr nap and we're lucky if its 9 to 10 hrs at night...they also have been getting up this week closer to 6a instead of 7a... UGH! In retrospect, I probably should have done like the pp and seen how they did on the vacation, but then again, I didn't want to deal with that on vacation either!

 

Ugh...I know it's going to be weird. I'm thinking I don't want to do it at all now, but who knows how they will react. I figure if they are tired enough maybe they will just sleep and not want to get out and play ... maybe I'm being a bit optimistic. Not really sure if it's going to be better worse to wait for this transition.

 

Can you take 2 pack n plays with you? Or let them fall asleep in your bed at your parents' house while you lay in bed with them? I'm a big, old chicken when it comes to transitioning out of the crib.....my oldest DS was 3.5 when we moved him into his full size bed and it went soooo beautifully that I will also wait as long as possible with my little guys!

Good luck! :hug:

 

We don't own two pnps. 8( plus, we have a compact car so I'm not even sure one would fit. On top of that, the girls don't sleep in bed with us...they think it's playtime.

 

Okay, I have zero advice but being only a couple of months different in age, I don't know what I would do if I had to try that transition...just can't picture it right now. Therefore, brave mama, you must post an update and let us know how it goes! opcorn:

 

LOL you guys, I didn't do it!!! I'm a big fat chicken and I don't think they're ready. I have no idea what the heck we are going to do when we are on vacation. UGH.

 

:laughing: You'll do fine!!! I don't know about you but with our vacations, everything seems to be thrown out the window! They eat food they normally don't eat, they sleep odd hours, they behave better (usually) when we're with strangers...
I'm sure they'll do great and surprise you!!! You are already one step ahead because you're going through all the motions ahead of time I honestly can not wait to hear how it goes :laughing:

 

You will all do fine, and even if you have issues with sleep - you'll return home and they'll return to their nice, secure, contained cribs and you'll all be able to sleep well again! :laughing:

 

lol...I will keep you all posted for sure. It will be a rollercoaster I'm sure.

 

vacation will be awesome! at least I'll have help and can escape for a few if need be.

 

maybe you could rent PNPs when you get to your parents, lots of cities have baby gear rental places. just google baby gear rental and the city. good luck!

 

That's a great idea, but they live in the middle of nowhere. :/

 

bummer :-(

 

AMEN!

Keep them in those cribbies!!