Comments on: Would you satisfy my curiosity? Transition from crib to big kid bed

By: high-school-dropout in parenting

high-school-dropout in parenting — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:22:33 +0000

My son was probably three and a half before I transitioned him, mostly because he had zero interest in potty training, and what is the point of transitioning a child out of a crib who is still in diapers? Once he was making some progress on the potty, we brought the toddler bed in and he never looked back. He was just ready.

I’ve had to chase him back into his own bed plenty of times, because he likes to go visit his sister in the next room and those two could keep each other up giggling ALL night long. But I never sat in his room till he fell asleep. Just a reminder is enough to send him scampering back to his room.

On the whole, easy peasy. Now he’s in a twin bed, no prob.

Child #2 (age 3.5) is still in her crib, but the rail is always down and she can get in and out easily. She is very reliable about staying in her bed until morning. I’ll probably move her into the toddler bed once Child #4 is too big for his bassinette and needs a crib.

Child #3 is not quite two, and unless he turns out to be the potty-training wizard that his older sibs weren’t, I’ll probably wait till he’s closer to 3 to move him out, as well. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?

By: Cindy

Cindy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:01:53 +0000

Our daughter never really slept in a crib, and at 9 months after running out of room in our Queen size bed, we bought her a double bed. This bed is in her room and she and I sleep in there.
We taught her how to get out of bed by turning herself around and stepping down. At almost 12 months, she is a pro at getting down her bed and other surfaces.
In the first month I put pillows around her after she fell asleep and she never rolled off – in the last 3 months, she has rolled off once and that was after I was in bed and got out to go pee in the middle of the night.
Her mattress is right on the floor, next year we’re going to get her a bed frame.

By: Sarah V.

Sarah V. — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:25:23 +0000

Ack! Sorry for broken link & thanks for the heads up, Annie – that should have been http://goodenoughmummy.typepad.com/good_enough_mum/2009/11/buh-beh.html.

Anyway, I’m curious as to how it works the other way round. How do you manage the potential getting/falling-out-of-bed problems in children who aren’t in cribs for their first couple of years?

By: Sarah V.

Sarah V. — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:39:31 +0000

Posted my story at http://goodenoughmummy.typepad.com/good_enough_mum/2009/12/buh-beh.html (can’t figure out how to get it to track back, though – maybe that only works for blogs using the same blogging software?)

By: Can Can (Mom Most Traveled)

Can Can (Mom Most Traveled) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 07:21:09 +0000

Both of my kids transitioned to cribless just before their 2nd birthday. With the first one my husband was really sick (hemmoragic dengue…we live in the tropics) and I was afraid I wouldn’t hear my 23 month old if he got up in the night. And we were still nursing. So I moved him to a twin bed next to our king, in our room. He did fine and we kept that arrangement for at least 6 months. Before that he had been in a crib in our room until he was about 20 months. Then we moved to a new house and started him off in his own room.
My younger child slept in my room in a crib until he was about 14 months, then we moved to a new house and the boys shared a room with twin beds. He only fell out once. He is 27 months now, the older one is 5.

By: Orsi

Orsi — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:36:00 +0000

My little girl moved to her toddler bed (from mine) a bit before this baby was born. She’s 2 now, and we’ve recently been introducing her to the idea of her own room. Which she loves – she’ll go in there and climb up on the bed and lie down and push me out. Doesn’t go to sleep in there though. The transition to her toddler bed from my bed, which is right next to it, was not one she wanted to willingly undertake until her little brother was born – then she stopped fighting with us about it. Now she’ll either start out the night in her room and come to mine later, or just go to sleep in my room in her little bed. Works for us!

By: some recent thoughts on parenting « woowoo mama

some recent thoughts on parenting « woowoo mama — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:45:02 +0000

[...] by woowoomama the other day i took a moment to read annie over at PhD in Parenting’s post in which she asked crib using parents to tell her what the transition to a bed was like for them [...]

By: Stephanie Laidlaw

Stephanie Laidlaw — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:59:28 +0000

I was very fortunate to be able to purchase a co-bed before my first was born, although she didn’t really spend that much time in it. We did set up a crib in her room initially, but she rarely slept in it. When we felt she was ready to sleep in her own room (believe me when I say she was a very independant child), we set up a mattress on the floor for her to sleep on. We child-proofed the room, put a gate up and put pillows on the floor all round the bed in case she fell out. When she was older, we put the box-spring under the mattress, then the bed frame when she was big enough to climb in by herself. It was all so natural, there was no problems. We did the same for our second child. Now that they are 6 and 8 they end up in our bed most nights at some point. We were feeling really crowded until we bought a king-sized bed. Now there is room for everyone.

By: kayris

kayris — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:02:45 +0000

Also, having done both, the transition from crib to big bed was done easily, while transition to having a parent in the room to being alone in the room was much harder.

By: kayris

kayris — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:01:06 +0000

We moved my son to a full sized bed shortly after he turned 2, because we needed the crib for our second. I wish we had left him in the crib later, because it turned out that the baby didn’t sleep in the crib regularly until she was 8 weeks old. Before that, she either slept in a Moses basket or in bed with me. My son was a great sleeper until we moved him to the bed, and then his sleep issues started. He is 5 now and still not a great sleeper. When he was younger, we did stay with him until he fell asleep and it was a nightmare. One of us would almost always fall asleep before he did, my husband and I were missing out on time together, or whichever one of us was putting him to bed would then wake up and not be tired enough to go to sleep at our usual time. So staying with him until he falls asleep now is not an option.

My daughter is 3 and still in a crib, has not attempted to climb out of it, and is a great sleeper, does not need to be parented to sleep. While she has slept in a big bed before and did great in it, because the kids share a room, she’ll be in the crib for awhile longer because of the containment issue.