questions about taking a toddler out of her crib and putting her into a big girl bed.

Teag · 13th July 2005, 11:18 AM

Hi, We are going to be moving in about 2 weeks and was going to put my 2 1/2yr old daughter in a big bed. I was wondering what I could do to make the transitions smoother and keep her in the bed. It'll be a regular twin daybed but I do have a railing to put up so she won't roll off the bed. We already have a bedtime ritual where we get a bath, read whatever book she picks out & then she goes right down. She also has a set bedtime of 8pm unless we are out which I'm hoping will make things easier. I'm just wondering how other parents do it, the age is she too young, will she actually stay in bed w/out getting up 100 times ect... Thanks in advance for your advice.

soccorsilly · 13th July 2005, 11:32 AM

Moving is a great time for change for a kid. We "lost" my son's pacifier in a move and he was cool with it, and we also made the switch from crib to bed. Explain that the new house does not have a crib but that you now get a big bed like mommy and daddy! YAY!

Keep the rails up, and keep the nighttime rituals. No problemns

RecordProducer · 13th July 2005, 11:58 AM

Whenever you think that something will cause a problem, it doesn't. Problems appear where you least expect. She should be completely fine with her new bed, even be excited that she will have a bed for big girls now.
You can prevent the hurtful falling if you put the bed in a way that one side will be next to the wall (you can cover the wall with something warm so that the child doesn't feel uncomfortable when it sleeps right next to it) and you can also put a matrass or big pillows on the floor in case she falls. But kids do fall when they know there is something to fall on! A chair next to the bed is fine too.
One of my kids (they are 6.5) fell recently because we moved the beds from one position (next to the wall) to another (no walls on the sides). So it got up and said: "Something happened to me, but I don't know what

!"

Stone · 13th July 2005, 12:05 PM

Whatever you do DON'T lay down in the bed with her untill she falls asleep that will just create another problem.

Make sure you make it fun and explain ALOT that it's a Big Girl Bed and make it really fun and make her feel proud to be a big girl

tiki · 13th July 2005, 12:07 PM

I moved my son from a toddler bed (crib convert) to a car-bed (the cutest little thing) when we moved into our new home. I had no intentions of it either. I had my friends move the furniture and they were carrying in two beds (crib convert and the car-bed) and has recommended to me to go ahead and cut him off while the change was going on. We moved the car-bed into the room and never put the toddler bed back up. He was almost three though.

About a year ago, age 3 1/2 - 4ish, he got a full size bunk bed, he loves it!! BIG BOY BED, YAY!!!

I'd talk about it, what a big kid she will be. How when in the new room, she will have a big girl bed for the new house. It should be fine!!

Good luck!

Teag · 13th July 2005, 12:41 PM

Thanks everyone, so there is hope everything will go ok. I was worried she may be too young. My husband thinks so but he also wants to keep her his little baby girl too, so he isn't much with the ides but I figured it would be the easiest since we're moving. I plan on setting her room up in hello kitty, they have the CUTEST bedroom and bathroom decors so I may set it up like a princess bed with the canopy above the bed. I'm so excited.

Merin · 13th July 2005, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Stone
Whatever you do DON'T lay down in the bed with her untill she falls asleep that will just create another problem.

Word!

LMAO Oh God I made that mistake with my first Wee Peep

Took forever then to get her to sleep all by herself without me in the room with her...
Damn I would have to *drop* off the side of her bed sometimes all quiet, then basically crawl across the floor on my hands and knee's to get the hell out of the room without her waking up.. THEN if her little eye's opened up and I looked her way ALL BETS WERE OFF! Sh*t!

quankanne · 13th July 2005, 1:01 PM

I plan on setting her room up in hello kitty, they have the CUTEST bedroom and bathroom decors

what a lucky little girl, Hello Kitty is just so CUTE!

merin, my sister's younger boy was like that. I used to "nanny" him and his brother (they're 18 months apart), and Stephen (older nephew) would fall asleep in minutes if you rubbed his back. But his brother Matthew was the complete opposite, so one of the things we'd do was take an extra book or two to bed, so that after his brother fell asleep, we could read more. Eventually, he'd fall asleep, but I'd have to do the slither-off-the-bed thing so I wouldn't wake him up, because it could take another 30 minutes or so to get that kid back to sleep!!!

now he's 21 and in college, so I'm guessing he doesn't sleep much at night anymore

Merin · 13th July 2005, 1:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by quankanne
[

merin, my sister's younger boy was like that. I used to "nanny" him and his brother (they're 18 months apart), and Stephen (older nephew) would fall asleep in minutes if you rubbed his back. But his brother Matthew was the complete opposite, so one of the things we'd do was take an extra book or two to bed, so that after his brother fell asleep, we could read more. Eventually, he'd fall asleep, but I'd have to do the slither-off-the-bed thing so I wouldn't wake him up, because it could take another 30 minutes or so to get that kid back to sleep!!!

now he's 21 and in college, so I'm guessing he doesn't sleep much at night anymore

MWC_LifeBeginsAt40 · 14th July 2005, 4:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by soccorsilly
Moving is a great time for change for a kid. We "lost" my son's pacifier in a move and he was cool with it, and we also made the switch from crib to bed. Explain that the new house does not have a crib but that you now get a big bed like mommy and daddy! YAY!

Keep the rails up, and keep the nighttime rituals. No problemns

OMG we did the exact same thing. The new house had no "sucky" lol and he was 2 1/2 then.

We put him in a bed when the new baby came and he was 2. We never had any problems with this kid though. He always did and does what he's told. My daughter on the other hand......

When we first put my daughter in a bed, she never stayed. We had to tie her door shut and she would peek out the crack and eventually fall asleep against the door, we could barely get it open. Poor kid, we felt bad but it was a last resort.

Teag · 15th July 2005, 1:53 PM

Quote:

When we first put my daughter in a bed, she never stayed. We had to tie her door shut and she would peek out the crack and eventually fall asleep against the door, we could barely get it open. Poor kid, we felt bad but it was a last resort.

Thats too funny & cute, I bet. I hope I don't have that problem, we don't have any problems with bed time right now so I'm hoping it continues w/ the big bed.

Teag · 1st August 2005, 11:50 AM

Hi again, thank you all for the responses. Last night was our first night at the new house w/ my daughter in her new bed. She loves it but was kinda scared when it was time for bed. So we turned on a movie (which I normally don't do, I hope that wasn't wrong) & sat in there w/ her (not in bed) until she fell asleep. She slept until about 2:30am then woke up scared, & she stayed up until about 6:30am. But now that I think about it I don't necessarily think it was ALL the new house, it was really hot in her room & she was sweating, we normally keep a fan in her room but haven't moved it to the new house yet so I cranked the ac up & once it got cool in there she fell back to sleep. But hopefully things will go better tonight & we'll see if that was part of the problem. Thanks again.

Mamaof2 · 13th August 2005, 7:08 PM

What we did also to help, my son just got his big boy about a month ago, we let him pick out his bedding and told him that he's a big boy and big boys get to pick his new bedding and all. He just loves his big boy bed. Good Luck with the new transition.

Teag · 15th August 2005, 12:47 PM

Quote:

What we did also to help, my son just got his big boy about a month ago, we let him pick out his bedding and told him that he's a big boy and big boys get to pick his new bedding and all. He just loves his big boy bed. Good Luck with the new transition.

Thanks, My daughter has been in her bed for about 2 weeks now & she just loves it. She's doing really well other than the fact that now that she can get out of her bed she's up at 6:30 every morning when before she would wake up but go back to sleep until 9 or so (on the weekends) lol but I haven't had a problem w/ her getting out of the bed or anything. Now we have to start working on the potty............