Crib to Toddler Bed

Heh, our kid made the choice for us. When he broke his leg, that made it pretty much impossible for Nessa to pick him up and put him in the crib. That's something she'd have to do since I wouldn't be home all the time. The cast also keeps him from getting up at night, though. Lucky for us, my parents happened to buy him a (drum roll) Spiderman toddler bed! So, the bed was busted out as an early birthday present, and I had it together after much cursing and kicking.

Ya know what? He LOVES the thing! There were some nights he would cry and complain about going to bed in the crib. Now, we can put him in his bed, he'll talk to himself for a while, then go to bed. He's even pointed at the door and told us "Out!" once or twice! We're planning on getting a gate to put at his door once he's mobile again (next week....YES!).
 
We transitioned our son at about 20 months. He's very tall for his age and was already more than able to climb out of his crib, so we bought a toddler bed.

To keep him in his room, we bought a safety (doggie) gate, took the door off it's hinges, and secured the gate in place. We just close it at night and can look in on him with no problems.

Now.......if we can just break him of waking up in the middle of the night and wanting to come sleep with Mommy & Daddy........ but that's a topic for another thread. ;)
 
ready2fly said:
Now.......if we can just break him of waking up in the middle of the night and wanting to come sleep with Mommy & Daddy........ but that's a topic for another thread. ;)
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We went through that too with the first one. A mistake that will not be made again. Very hard habit to break.
 
While Steve's answer is the simplest way, if we're talking about breaking a habit, as opposed to not starting a habit, that's going to be a little harder ;)

The only way to do it is to just do it. Tell the little guy that he's a big boy, and that big boys sleep in their own beds at night. Even if you don't think he understands you, tell him anyway. Then, tuck him in bed, and every time he gets up to come in your room, put him back in bed. If you have a gate you can put at his door, that's great too. Every time he wakes up and hollers for you or comes in your room, put him back in his bed. Keep it subdued & simple, just give him a kiss and maybe a quick "big boys sleep in their own beds", and tuck him in. Keep conversation (and even eye contact!) to a minimum, and no negotiations!

Those first few nights of doing this will be very, very hard. There will probably be lots of crying, lots of tantrums, but eventually, he'll get it. Consistancy is the KEY to this though, if you've decided the time has come for him to sleep in his own bed, you've got to stick to your guns and keep putting him back there. Every time.
 
MQAAord said:
While Steve's answer is the simplest way, if we're talking about breaking a habit, as opposed to not starting a habit, that's going to be a little harder ;)

The only way to do it is to just do it. Tell the little guy that he's a big boy, and that big boys sleep in their own beds at night. Even if you don't think he understands you, tell him anyway. Then, tuck him in bed, and every time he gets up to come in your room, put him back in bed. If you have a gate you can put at his door, that's great too. Every time he wakes up and hollers for you or comes in your room, put him back in his bed. Keep it subdued & simple, just give him a kiss and maybe a quick "big boys sleep in their own beds", and tuck him in. Keep conversation (and even eye contact!) to a minimum, and no negotiations!

Those first few nights of doing this will be very, very hard. There will probably be lots of crying, lots of tantrums, but eventually, he'll get it. Consistancy is the KEY to this though, if you've decided the time has come for him to sleep in his own bed, you've got to stick to your guns and keep putting him back there. Every time.
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I agree with the "keep conversation (and even eye contact!) to a minimum, and no negotiations!" part, and the "Consistancy is the KEY" part, and the "stick to your guns" part.

The dangerous part is, "Tell the little guy that he's a big boy, and that big boys sleep in their own beds at night." Sure as shootin', they'll come back with "I don't wanna be a big boy." Then you're in an argument that you can never win, because kids don't have to follow rules of logic. They'll always win those, so never engage. :)


I can't emphasize consistency enough. Never say it unless you mean it, and never say it unless you plan to enforce it. Idle will words will bite you in the rear.






.
 
ready2fly said:
Well.......help a fellow dad out, please. :D

How'd you do it? (break the habit?)
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We also went through this when our son was around 20 months. Lasted about 2 weeks, and it wasn't that hard to overcome, just took a lot of patients.

We he would get out of bed and come into our room to get into bed with us we simply picked him up (we took turns) placed him back in his bed, turned on his music, and closed the door.

No talking what so ever. No turning on the lights, no eye contact.

Often this had to be repeated 4,5,6 or more times in a row, each time we did the same thing. There was a fair amount of crying involved when we put him back into bed, but in the end it worked.

We never had to get upset or negotiate. Just cost us some sleep.
 
TonyC said:
Sure as shootin', they'll come back with "I don't wanna be a big boy." Then you're in an argument that you can never win, because kids don't have to follow rules of logic. They'll always win those, so never engage. :)
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To which I reply, "that's okay, you don't have to be a big boy, but you're sleeping in your own bed anyway".


There, I win. :)
 
Thanks, Amber, Tony & X-Forces! I appreciate it. I'm off the next three days, so I'll be gettin' up with him if he wakes up.

I'll keep ya'll posted on th progress.
 
ready2fly said:
Well.......help a fellow dad out, please. :D

How'd you do it? (break the habit?)
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It was probably a little bit easier for us because at the time he was still in his crib, but we had to just let him cry himself to sleep many nights. I think your mileage will vary depending on what genes your child has! :) Both of mine are extremely stubborn and determined, so it took a good week or two to get him settled down and back on schedule in his own bed. If anything, for me, the toughest part was just having to let him cry it out, sometimes because I felt bad and sometimes because it made me want to drive my car into a telephone pole. :D But it ended and a lesson was learned. I don't want to place any blame...but I think my wife started that because he was pretty sick. The oldest one just about had to have tubes put in because he had so many ear infections repeatedly.
 
Re: Crib to Toddler Bed--It Finally Happened

Raymond, just shy of his 2nd birthday greeted us this morning OUT of his crib. There was no "Thud." Apparently he can do a good job of climbing over, then slowly sliding down.

We had a feeling it was just a matter of time.
 
Update...though a boring one. When I had initially asked for advice on this after we had caught him hanging out the side of his crib for dear life, the kiddo hasn't tried it since. Maybe he didn't like the feeling or something, or is just content with his blanket and monkey...

So...he just turned 2 last week and is still using his crib with no problems. He's old enough that when he's ready, we'll just get a small toddler bed and hope for the best, while putting him back in his bed 12 times a night.
 
Gavin has discovered he can get out of the bed on his own. Luckily for us, he only wakes up maybe once or twice a night. If you make it into his room when he FIRST wakes up, he looks at you, sees you're still in the house, then collapses back in a heap of sleep. If you wait too long, we get the tugging on the comfortor and the sounds of "Ma ma.....Da da...." and we have to go put him back in his own bed.
 
Well...I started this thread back in February and just last night we finally transitioned him to a toddler bed...AND I AM TIRED!!!!!!

I guess for second I was hoping that he'd want to stay in his new bed because he was excited about it...but that obviously didn't happen. He started off by crying and crying and then wouldn't stay in the bed. Back and forth..back and forth..he finally fell asleep on the floor right next to his bed. I assume this is normal..??? I was about to put the crib back together, but my wife threatened me. :) He proceeded to wake up at 3 in the morning mad, so my wife went his room and slept on the floor...fun times.

You know...parenting is tiring...;);)
 
Oh, those first few nights are brutal.

Our older boy was a bit distressed by the lack of his crib the first night, and tried to curl up on the floor next to his CD player after an hour. I moved the CD player to the head of the bed (there's a shelf there) and he crawled up to be next to the CD player and was asleep in 10 minutes. Never had a problem since.

Our younger boy we just put in a toddler bed about 6 weeks ago. It's a minature version of his big brother's bed. Big brother has the twin size race car bed, and little brother got the smaller crib matress size race car bed. So he knew what it was, and what it was for. We put a gate at the door, so he couldn't escape, but it took several nights of him coming to the door and us having to put him back in bed to get him to stay there.

For us, the key was silence. When I put him to bed, I told him it was night-night time and was to stay in his bed and go to sleep. I told him if he got out of bed and I had to put him back that I wasn't going to talk to him or play, I would just silently put him back in bed and leave. So that's what I did. Over and over and over and over again, but eventually he "got it". He does wake in the night and holler, but he was doing that in the crib too. Very annoying. I go in his room, silently put him back in bed and leave. I'm anxiously awaiting the passing of this stage. If he wasn't so damn LOUD, and the fact that he won't give up if I don't go put him back, I'd just leave him be. But his brother's room is right across the hall, and with his volume & persistance he'd wake up the whole damn house if I let him.

Keep at it! He'll figure it out!
 
Gavin was fantastic.....for a while (and this was even AFTER he was mobile again). We'd sit in the rocking chair in his room, talk about his day, then he would go to sleep in his bed without a fuss, and we wouldn't see or hear him until the next morning. Well, there's been some sort of devil induced regression. If you can even get him to sleep in HIS bed at all (we get the "NO! Night-night in Mommy/Daddy bed!" a lot), he'll probably get up some point in the middle of the night and refuse to go back to sleep in his bed.

Oddly enough, this ONLY happens when Nessa is home. On the nights she's working and I have to put Gavin to bed, I get ZERO trouble out of him. We'll rock, talk, I'll fly him to bed like an airplane, and he's out like a light. Most of the time he even sleeps through the night. If Nessa's home, it's a fight every time. We'll try the "silence method" next time to see if that works, though.
 
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