Who has been successful transferring to toddler bed

Hi all! Jackson's sleep has been messed up since April 2nd. I think he had some separation anxiety issues and I ended up staying in the boys room until he fell asleep for both nap and nighttime. I would have stopped this habit a while ago but we were going on vacation and I knew their sleep routine would be messed up anyway. He was able to climb out of his co-sleeper in a second at the beach and ended up sleeping in a king size bed with me the whole week. The in-laws were with us and we needed some peace and quiet and we all needed a little sleep.

Well, now we are back and Jackson won't sleep in his crib at all and prefers to sleep with me in the room. That's all well and good for him since he is sleeping on a mat and I get the carpet -- LOL. He has figured out how to climb out of his crib and is great at practicing this little feat since Monday. The crib tents don't fit their cribs at all so we put the mattress on the floor inside the crib to make it harder to climb out. That didn't work either.

I feel our only option is to transer his crib to a toddler bed. Ethan doesn't seem to mind that he is stuck in his crib while Jackson isn't. I was so hoping to keep them in their cribs until they were 2.5 to 3 though. Any success stories out there with transferring a kid under 2 (they are 22.5 months) to a toddler bed?

TIA
Mendy

 

Hi Mendy - I only know one gal who has her under 2 year olds in toddler beds. They did just fine, but she had to pretty much lock them in their room so they wouldn't "escape". LOL!

 

I moved mom oldest DS before he was 2 he did really good the first night and then the next ngith we had to start locking his door so he would keep running out! After 1 or 2 days of him screaming at his door he just started falling asleep on his own! We still have to lock his door every once adn a while if he is hyper but other than that he does really well!

 

We are going to move to toddler beds next month so I can't personally comment but I can tell you that I know quite a few other moms (of singletons though!) that have moved before age 2. They all told me that they moved without a hitch. My two still share a room so I am a little scared, but a part of me is also excited.

 

We switched our girls to toddler beds about a month to a month and a half ago -- so between 22 and 23 months old. They did great with it. At first, we converted their cribs to toddler beds, but their cribs do not have any rail on the open side and they kept falling out of bed. So, after about 2 weeks, we bought toddler beds. They LOVE their beds and sleep so much better in them. At first, it would take 2 or 3 times of us telling them to go to bed both at bedtime and naptime. Now, they go right to sleep and mostly stay in bed all night. Occasionally, they will get up and come to our room at night but easily go back to their own beds. One thing that really helped was that we put their beds right next to each other and they seem to like sleeping next to each other. For us, sleep and naps are so much better than ever. Before switching to toddler beds, my girls would only nap if their dad (SAHD) would hold them and rock them to sleep. Now, they walk into their room, get in bed, and go to sleep at nap time. It is amazing. They also wake up easier in the morning and sleep later. In cribs, they would wake up crying around 6am. Now, they often sleep until 7 or 7:30 and they will wake up without crying and walk into our room or play in their room for awhile. I really worried about switching to toddler beds so young because of all the things I heard and read, but it was a great decision for us.

 

I transitioned mine at about 19 -20 months. It's been a learning experience. I've had to childproof all of the dresser drawers, to keep the girls from trashing their room, lock them in, and make the room as dark as possible for naps. I've also had to seperate them at naptime, otherwise, they would usually play and not sleep. It's gotten much better now, however, it took sometime to figure it all out. Now after doing all of the childproofing, the girls know how to unlock the drawers, and just play with the latches. They also figured out how to open their doors, and come out at 5:45am. I'm in the process of getting locks that they can't open to keep them safe. The girls don't mind being seperated at naptime, I bought a Pea Pod Plus travel tent to put Erin in, and she likes it. They will sleep about 2 - 3 hours like this during the day. I'm glad I did it, and the worst is behind us now.

Good luck!

 

We transferred all 4 of our kids before age 2 - Matt at 15 months, Mila at 20 months, Zach at 17 months and Hannah at 18 months. I can honestly say that we never had any issues with them jumping out of bed and running out of their rooms. All in all it has been painless all four times. I also transitioned them before they ever even tried to climb out of their beds so I think that it never even really occurred to them to do that.

We also went straight to a twin bed for all of them. We put the mattresses on the floor for Matt with a guard rail at first. Mila went straight to a twin bed on the frame with a guard rail that we just got rid of a month ago (age 4). Hannah was the same but I have already removed the guard rail for her. Zach actually is on a full size futon without a guard rail.

Zach is my one that does climb out of bed now - but he didn't do that at first. He is my only night owl and would really prefer to stay up later. But, for my own sanity I need them all to go to bed at the same time right now. Unless he is bothering his onlder brother with whom he shares a room, I leave him be and let him get into and out of bed until he is tired. He simply needs to bounce himself to sleep - always has since birth. If he is bothering Matt, we just go up and put him back to bed. IT seems like when he is going through a growth spurt, we have the greatest issues with him bugging Matt - our current situation.

Also, we do close the doors to their bedrooms at night. Hannah and Mila have a nightlight, but Zach and Matt don't. I do think that at this time of the year, the hardest part is that bedtime happens before it is really dark outside, so that might be your biggest challenge with the bed switch. So, I would agree with pp, to try and get the room as dark as possible.

Best of luck to you.