Advice for Switching from Crib to Bed

The technique is really simple, it just takes consistancy (and a spine!). When they get up, lead them back to bed- don't talk, don't pick them up, don't interact in any way. Do this every single time without fail. If he gets up in the night, straight back to bed. If he gets up earlier than you want him to in the morning, straight back to bed. My daughter is 21 months and we switched her about a month and a half ago for the same reason (I'm due in Sept and I want it to be old hat for her so that at least in this area she doesn't regress when the baby is born). She got up for the first week, and since then we have had no problems at all. And don't let him in bed with you at all! I know it's nice to snuggle sometimes, but the thing with toddlers is that if they do something once they want to do it always, and you have to remember that with almost every decision you make with them.

Dear J.,

I don't know if it made it easier, but what we did was to take the crib rail off and replace it with a bed safety rail so my son (and later my daughter) could get in and out like a bed with the comfort of the familiar crib. Due to spatial (and other) issues, my daughter slept this way until was five - and my "baby" (now fifteen - UGH!) stayed in a porta-crib until she was three.

Good luck!
B.

I know this isn't the advice you are asking for, but I also want to encourage you to consider not making the transition yet. I've had many friends who get their child sleeping through the night in a big bed, and then when the baby comes they have all kinds of sleeping issues (with 2 kids!) No it doesn't mean that your son will be that way, and if you really want to get him in a big boy bed that's great. But I don't want you to feel like you have to do it just because he's 2 and you have another on the way. I wish you all the best.

Hi J.,

It was an easy transition for me, my daughter slept alone at 18 months in a full size bed. Once it was bedtime, I'd lay her in her bed and lay to next to her until she fell asleep. At least until she was used to it. Now she there on her own.. she is 20 months olds and climbs on her bed when she is ready to go to sleep. Start making it a habit and you should be fine.

You could try starting a routine and let him be a big part of it. Have him get ready for bed at night in his room where the bed would be. Getting his pajamas on, having a story read to him, laying there for just a little while having a short conversation with him. Don't mention the bed unless he gets excited about it. That way if he is uncomfortable, he won't be thinking about it. His mind will be on his nightly routine. I wish you lots of luck!

If you have a crib that converts to a toddler bed, I'd do that first (if you're planning on moving him to a big bed by August.) I'd get a baby gate that you can put across the door so he won't be tempted to leave his room after he's been put to bed. Make sure that you keep the same routine at bedtime, and don't make a big deal out of converting the bed. If you make a big deal out of it, he'll wonder what's so new and exciting. If you keep things the same, the switch should go smoothly. Good luck on the new baby! :)

I got my son a bed in the shape of a car (little tikes brand) and he loved it!

We put my son in the big boy bed and stood quietly next to the bed - no eye contact, no talking, no responding to him after we said good night and tucked in. Then for every minute he stays in his bed we moved a foot closer to the door. If he got out we put him back and started over close to the bed. It was hard not to talk to him but we didn't want him to keep getting up or ask for water, kisses, a toy whatever to prolong bedtime everynight. It takes awhile but it will work. You are smart to do this before the new baby comes- you don't want him to think the new baby is taking his bed.

We have been working on this with our daughter (28 months) for a few months now. She has a 3 month old sister so same thing, thought we would move her before we put her sister in the crib. It has been a struggle because she has never liked to sleep. Sometimes it takes us 2 hours to get her to sleep, but when she does finally sleep she stays in bed. basically we do the same routine we always did - bath, read etc. for an hour, then she goes into bed at 8. her dad usually sings to her/talks to her with lights out, and we take turns until she finally stays in bed. Sometimes there is a lot of screaming and kicking, at which point we put her back in her crib, which she REALLY doesnt like. the first couple times she slept in the crib, but after that once we put her in the crib and take her out again after about 5 minutes, she will usually stay in her bed. Once we leave the room one of us will stand outside and make her get right back into bed if she gets out (she has a glass door with a curtain and when she gets out of bed she comes and pushes the curtain aside so we know she is awake.
We tried incentives but it didnt really work, mainly she just has to be tired enough to stay in bed. It has gotten progressively better, so i'm hoping by the time we want to move her sister in she'll be going to bed faster (haha).

Hello, congrats on baby #3!. We recently moved our daughter into her "big girl bed". She is two and the transition went pretty smoothly. We first made it a big deal, taking her to the store and buying princess bedding and accessories. We did a room makeover and didn't let her see it until it was finished, then when we did we almost had a ribbon cutting. No ribbon was involved but we took her in to see it for the first time and made it an exciting event. We celebrated with a cake for dessert and again mentioned what a big girl she was and how she has a big girl room now. It sounds a little over the top but we wanted this to be a very positive and exciting time for her. It took about a week of us laying on the floor next to her bed until she fell asleep. When she would wake up and come to our room we quietly took her back to her bed and again laid on the floor until she was out again. Our bed was off limits, we didn't want to start something that would be hard to end. It was an easy tranistion. I hope this helps, Best of luck!

My advice would be to try to borrow or get a good deal on another crib for a while. There are some great deals on craigslist.com for used cribs. I think its a good idea to let the kids stay in their cribs as long as you can. I think trying to force the transition early (esp with a baby on the way) brings on a whole other set of issues that you wouldn't have to deal with otherwise (kind of like what happened with your other child).
Good luck with whatever you decide.

Congratulations on your new baby, and on the wonderful family it sounds like you already have! I, too, have a 4 year old, 2 year old, and my baby is 7 months old. The situation you had with your daughter sounds like it was very challenging! I wish you better luck this time. What course of action you choose probably depends a great deal on the individual child, but you have to do what works for your family. I can share my story, and hope it helps and gives you hope.

My daughter, who was 19 months old then, was not known for how well she handled transitions, so when we were expecting our second child and I knew this transition was coming, I started strategizing. I planned to have my husband assemble the bed and have it in the room for a month or so, so she could get used to it. I planned to find a book about moving into a big-girl bed, etc. I wanted her to be totally acclimated to her new bed before the baby came, even though the baby would be in a bassinet in our room for a while. I never wanted her to feel 'forced out'. Anyway, I had bugged my husband to assemble the bed, since I wanted it to be in the room for a while before we started any transition. He spent all day assembling the top bunk of a bunkbed set, which we planned to use because of the full rail. (The wall provided the enclosure for the other side). Just to clarify, we didn't use it as a bunk bed set at this time, just as a single bed. That was just our future plan. Anyway, when Eric was all done assembling it, I started telling him my plans for how to slowly start this transition. He just laughed, and thought I was making it way too complicated. He said he wanted to try having her sleep in it that night! I, having researched how difficult this can be, thought he was absurd, but was willing to go along with it.

We put Madeleine down to sleep that night in her new big bed. We had moved the crib to the other side of the room, and put the bed in the same location in the room her crib had occupied. We tucked her in, said goodnight, and then waited outside her room to see if she'd come out. She never got out of her bed, but went right to sleep. It was a month or two before she ever tried to get out. She applied the same rules to her bed that she had to her crib. She'd call for us to come get her. She'd occasionally point to her crib with a quizzical look, but never made a fuss about it. By the time her sister moved in there months later, it was a non-issue. Actually , the first time she climbed out was during a nap, during which time she made a total mess of her room and then got stuck between the sliding closet doors! It scared her so badly she didn't try to get out of her bed again for at least 6 months!

I was so sure that it would be hard, and it was a piece of cake! It was the same when it came time for Guinevere to move out of the crib when we were expecting our son.

Hope this helps!

Dear J.~

When my son was about the same age as yours, we took off the side of the crib that moves to enable you to take him out and replaced it with a Toddler Bed Rail. We also set the bed to its lowest setting. My son then had the familiarity of his crib while having the flexibility of a Toddler Bed. He was in his crib like that for several months until we moved him to a regular bunk bed. He did just fine.

Good luck with it!!

Hi -
My son was 2 yrs 9 mths when our 2nd was born. We transitioned him to a big boy bed 3 months AFTER the baby was born. We involved him in picking out his big boy bed and bedding to prepare him for it. I let him sleep with his big boy pillow in his crib until the bed came. We asked him to "help" us disassemble his crib and assemble his big boy bed with his "tools". He was thrilled with the whole process. I've never seen him so excited to go to sleep!

We put the crib in our garage temporarily while the baby is currently sleeping in our room. We felt this was the best way to make sure our older son did not feel pushed out. Now that our older son is comfortable sleeping in his big boy bed, we plan to bring the crib back in the house and into the baby's room. I also bought new baby bedding for the crib so our older son won't feel like the baby just took over his things.

Our son only got out of bed a couple times. I think this was because he was involved with the process of getting the bed. When he did get out of bed we just walked him back and explained that night time is for resting his body so he can be healthy and strong.

HTH

Our daughter was born approx. 2 years after our son. She stayed in our room until she was 7 months old. Then she slept in a packnplay, in the same room as our son, while our son stayed in the crib.
When he turned 3, we bought a toddler bed and the transition was seamless, as well as hers to the crib (both are still in the same room).
Some children are ready sooner. At 2.5 years, my daughter was 100% potty-trained and we weren't ready to buy a bed, so we just removed the side of the crib, so that she could climb in and out herself.
Don't feel like they have to do certain things at specific times. It just puts undue pressure on you and them.

Good luck

J.,

I don't know if I am going to say what you want to hear, but do you in your heart think your son is ready for a big boy bed? If you don't then I say keep the new baby in your room for as long as possible and let him acclimate himself to the new situation. I think he is going to feel pushed out BECAUSE OF THE NEW BABY, and that will most likely cause unwanted tension and problems between him and your new addition. My suggestion is to make it a big deal for him....go and have him help you find a big boy bed JUST FOR HIM because he is SO BIG and NOT A BABY any more that he NEEDS A NEW BIG BOY BED. Make it fun for him picking out favorite sheets, blankets and pillowcases. Work up to it and make it fun, (having nothing so ever to do with the new baby) since he is so young I think a bed with a good lip around the edge will make him feel a bit more secure. I don't know if I am helping at all but I truly feel that the stress and jealousy that your little boy is going feel because of a new baby will be magnified by "the baby taking HIS CRIB" and that won't be good. Well I will stop rambling and I hope I was of some help.

Peace~Love~Light
V.

Congrats on the new baby!
My son is 3 and we had to move him to his big boy bed at 2, earlier than I would have liked because he figured out how to climb out of the crib. We put the box spring and mattress on the floor and started with having him start with naps in the bed, nights in the crib. Then put him down at night in the bed once we were fairly certain he wouldn't fall out. We also made a big deal out of it with new stuffed animals and bedding. We praised him for being a big boy.
He's done well so far. I can't say he sleeps through the night all the time, but he never has been a great sleeper. I'll be writing about that soon!
Good luck!