Yet another crib-to-bed transition question for those who have BTDT

Well, after climbing out of his crib once 6 months ago and not again until this week, DS1 has declared game on.
He will not stay in his crib. We are no longer open to the idea of a crib tent (maybe if he was younger). So, I am desperate for some answers to my questions from those of you who have BTDT.

DS1 is ready and DS2 is not. They share a room. Our options are as follows.
1. Convert both cribs at once. Complete overhaul of the room to make it as safe as possible (removal of fan, power cord, ...). Are my kids the only ones who like to pull plugs out of the walls? I fear the room will never be safe enough. I fear no sleep ever again.
2. Convert DS1 and not DS2 and see how it goes. I fear that DS1 will not let DS2 sleep. I fear no sleep ever again.
3. Move DS1 to our baby's nursery because our baby shows no signs of sleeping through the night yet, so still sleeps in our room. I fear a difficult transition separating them and then reuniting them again a few months down the road. I fear no sleep ever again.

Did I mention I fear no sleep ever again? I'm already getting little sleep with the baby!!

This is happening during a "good" week because my DH is off. He's been having to sit in the boys' room at night until DS1 falls asleep so he won't climb out of his crib. He then climbed out at 5:40a this morning, so he's been up for the day (he usually sleeps until 8). My DH tried sitting in there at nap time today, finally DS2 fell asleep, but he gave up on DS1 at about the 45 minute mark when he was only ramping up.

How did you do this when one was ready and not both?
What safety measures did you take?
How awful is the transition?
What toddler rails did you use/like for convertible cribs?

We have safety latches on the outside on their door (we have a screen door on their room so we can both see in and out). These latches will be on at all times, so they will not be able to get out of the room. The staircase is directly outside of their room and I fear that in the dark, they'll go tumbling down (unless we mount a gate).

I know I have more questions, but the baby is crying now.

Thanks for your advice!

 

When we transitioned they were in separate rooms and I think this really helps keep the shenanigans to a minimum. You will want to mount any dressers or bookshelves to the wall in case they try to climb them or move them into a locking closet. You can also use dressers to hide cords so you may be able to keep the fan unless it is the type they can stick their fingers into. I try to go in their room as little as possible – now with a baby this is tough since you obviously don’t want them being so loud that they might wake a sleeping baby but in our case they just feed of this. The other part that makes this a bit challenging is potty training. But eventually the excitement of their new found freedom does wear off and they will at some point pass out – maybe on the floor – maybe on their bed.

 

My kids were about 3 months older than as yours when we had to transition. The thing is, once DS2 sees DS1 climb out, he'll probably follow. So I'd just go and transition them both.

Honestly for us the transition went great. We didn't have time to prepare them at all - DD climbed out at nap time, then both at bedtime and they trashed their room, so we just did the transition right then, at 10pm on a Friday, lol. They have a knob cover on their room as well, for the same reason as you, the stairs are right there and I'm worried they would tumble in the dark. So we just pretty much did our bedtime routine and closed the door. It took about a week for them to take naps again and fall asleep faster at bedtime though (they still fall asleep on the floor occasionally, lol).

We had to empty EVERYTHING. Drawers, toys, everything was gone. Nope, my kids don't leave anything plugged in either, so we got rid of the monitor (that's all we had plugged in). We have safety covers on all the outlets, and the dresser (empty) is attached to the wall. We have cordless blinds (which is a MUST, I know a kid who died from corded blinds). The window locks are out of their reach. Despite that, they managed to destroy their closet door, which fell on the floor, thankfully they were smart enough to move away and nobody was hurt. So their closet is now empty with no door. Honestly 1.5 year later, all there is in their room is twin mattresses on the floor (which I recommend, personally, cribs were too high off the ground for me and I didn't want to bother with bed rails, plus they jump on them so much at least I'm not worried they'll fall off or break the bed), their bedding and soft toys (mostly stuffed toys). That's it. Nothing they can climb on. Nothing they can throw at each other or fall on. So I'm not worried at all.

We still haven't bothered with night potty training though, so I'm sure it makes things more complicated.

 

I had to transition the boys 3 weeks ago with a 1 month old. I feel your pain. In my case my boys destroyed their crib tents. I couldn't just lock the door and step away as mine hurt eachother when we left. I tried the repetitive Super Nanny thing but had no success. What did work was insist they stay in bed laying down. Sitting up or getting out of bed was an immediate swat on the butt and no books. It was not fun and they still test me occasionally but it has gotten so much better! They don't take as long to fall asleep anymore. I did start reading 2 books of their choice and let them bring them into bed to 'read' after we left. We also are praising them a ton when they are caught doing right- high 5s and such.

 

When we first transitioned, I was terrified that we would have zero sleep ever again! It hasn't been nearly as bad as I thought, but maybe that's because I expected the worst?

As far as safety measures, we got locks for their closet (two bi-fold doors - we found things that slid over the hinge on the doors when closed). They happen to have a huge closet, so their dresser went into the closet, which was tight but doable, and at least I knew they wouldn't be pulling things out or climbing it. Oh, and the changing table went into another room since they aren't PT yet - it's inconvenient, but again, better than worrying about them climbing it.

All outlets were plugged, and those in use, we got a cover to go over the chords in the plug so they can't unplug them (and believe me, they tried! I can barely get the darn things off myself....). And we also got a guard for the light switch so they couldn't turn the lights on.

Our cribs converted to toddler beds that are shaped like a day bed - so enclosed on three sides. We got a regular bedrail from Walmart for the open side - it said it wasn't for use on toddler beds, but it worked fine. They COULD have climbed out, but never did (which shocked me since they could get out of their cribs).

We kept the bedrails for a couple of months, and then got rid of them about a week ago, and I am SHOCKED to say that they have stayed in bed so far, even for naps (and they are not good nappers!). Before we got rid of the rails, we got a clock that showed a bunny asleep and awake, and really talked up staying in bed while the bunny was asleep. I don't know if that helped or not. Each of them have fallen out of bed once, and other than that, are doing good so far. But I still feel like the other shoe is going to drop one of these days and they will start getting up and going crazy. :unsure:

As far as one being ready and the other not, I would probably try changing one first and see how it goes, and if it doesn't go well, then go from there.

 

DS1 climbed out of his crib 2 months ago (they just turned 3 a few days ago). Once he did that we took the mattress support thingy off and put their mattresses directly on the floor inside their crib (a tip I learned of here at TS), and that has worked wonders. I saw DS1 trying to hike his foot over the rail after that (we have video monitors) so I scolded him a couple of times and he hasn't tried it again since. However, I know it is just a matter of time that he is going to climb out again, so we have bolted their dresser to the wall, and I put these drawer locks on their dresser drawers so they aren't able to get in them. They are the best sturdiest locks I've ever found, even I have to struggle to open the dresser drawers! We also have bi-fold closet locks. We have their video monitors plugged in behind their cribs with covers installed over the plugins, and the cords taped to the wall. I hadn't even thought of light switch locks until now. Good tip! I just bought one from Amazon

I think we are mostly ready to convert their cribs to toddler beds with rails...but since they are still happily sleeping in their cribs we haven't been brave enough to do that yet! We are going to start hardcore potty training this weekend (no pullups during the day, only underwear) and I don't think I can deal with 2 stressful transitions at once! We plan to leave them in nighttime pullups, and just focus on daytime potty training.

I'll be watching this thread for anymore tips on toddler proofing a bedroom. Thanks ladies!

 

I would transition both. I had one who was ready and one who wasn't, but the one who wasn't ready cried when she saw her brother outside of the crib and she couldn't get out. We left the dresser in the room and latched the drawers closed individually. Used the dresser to hide the cords for the sound machine and the nightlight, which sit on top. Locked the closet, took out all toys except for their lovies and pillow pets. We didn't use bedrails. DS crib came with little half rails when it was converted and DD did not have a rail, but never fell out. The cribs converted into toddler beds are so low to the ground that we did not feel the need for an extra rail.

The first few days were crazy as they wanted to run around and play as soon as the door was closed. We let them go for a little while to get it out of their system. After that we would sit outside the door and go in every few minutes to tell them to get back in bed and lay down. If they didn't lay down we would start taking away stuffed animals and the last straw was turning the nightlight off. Once that happens they can't run around so they go to bed if nothing else is working!

It's really not as bad as it seems. Also, sound machines in their room and baby's room have been a godsend to stop them from waking baby and vice versa!

 

So far, we've had mostly good but i've had to be REALLY mean. We are fortunate that we have 4 bedrooms so we had another room set up with twin beds. We told them it was their big boy room. When we transitioned them, we left the furniture, books, lamps, and some toys in there. We did our bedtime routine and when it is time for us to leave (this is where we are mean) we told them, if we had to come back more than once, we were taking all of their toys and books. We had 1 night where they decided to jump off their bed over and over but I put a stop to that after 30 minutes (i let them wear themselves out first). So far, just the threat of mean has kept them in their beds. One time Jacob did open the door and call me but he had a poopy so I am ok with that. I never thought I would have to been as mean as I feel I am but it seems to work and they seem to keep to their beds. Of course, watch it all go to heck now that i've posted this.

 

Thanks for your thoughts.
We are going to transition them both (DS2 has not climbed out, he just eggs his brother on!). We're just waiting on the crib rails to be delivered which should be tomorrow. DS1 continues to climb out whenever he's not sleeping or someone is not in the room making him stay in his crib. Every night since he started climbing out, my DH has had to sit in the room until they both fall asleep. Naps are non-existent anymore for DS1. We're on guard starting very early waiting for him to wake up so we can sweep in and get him before he starts doing anything in the room. As I write this, I realize that it sounds like we're really paranoid ;-), but we're just trying to prevent him from playing around with the few things that still need to be safety-proofed. We plan to remove everything from the room except for the beds and some books. I think we need to install a high corner shelf for the white noise they have used since they were born. If anything is left plugged in on their level it won't last an hour. I am going to leave the curtains up and hope they don't pull them down. We'll see.
I am nervous about it all. When my boys discover a new freedom, it's usually mayhem. But like anything else, hopefully it'll wear off after not too long. I suppose we'll know in the first couple of nights how crazy it will be, especially when they first go to bed. Then, we'll have to start (trying) to set boundaries.
I think we'll also get one of those sleep-wake clocks that changes colors when the they can get up. Does anyone have one? Did they understand it at this age?

 

We have them. When we first got them (probably when our kids were somewhere in the 2's) they did not understand them. I would say understanding the clock and the colors came when they were around 3. This was good because that was when my son was transitioned from a crib to a toddler bed. He was much easier then my daughter, though he was a wanderer and we were afraid he would be wandering the house in the middle of the night, so we put a latch lock on his door.
My daughter was transitioned at 19 months old because she would climb out of her crib. It took us two weeks to get her to stop fooling around upstairs and go to bed. She was not too bad at night but nap time was awful. We were lucky at the time, because the kids were in separate rooms by then, so she wasn't disturbing her brother. But I did have to sit in the room with her and silently keep putting her back in her bed. Eventually she did get it.

 

Haven't got time to read everything properly, but I couldv'e written this!!!

I too fear no sleep and many of the same problems.

GBH!!!!!!!!!!!