Toddler Beds

Dun...Dun..DUNNNNNNNNNN!

I hope you can appreciate the sheer terror and anxiety I felt every time we discussed this. Even when Tate was first climbing out of his bed, we put it off, thinking it was a fluke. We mentioned it to their babysitter and she said he had been doing it for a week after nap time. Crawling out of his pack 'n play and into Gracie's to wake her ;)

Our pediatrician confirmed it, he is going to hurt himself one of these mornings, we have to bite the bullet. I have been hesitant to post because I didn't want to jinx the progress we were making, but I think they are unaffected by my desires anyway.

SO. Mother's Day we took apart their cribs and converted them to toddler beds. Much noise was made about BIG BOY and BIG GIRL beds. They were excited and nervous. I was a little sentimental and very nervous.

Daddy went to work.

They had a lot of fun once they were put together and they could get up and down, and of course, jump around.



That night the usual bed time was 6:30 PM. We followed routine, but they didn't fall asleep until 9PM (despite their iron will to play all night). Tate then woke at 1am, roaming around the room crying, and 4am just crying until he settled himself. Then they woke for the day at 5:45am. We were exhausted.

2nd day, same story, but they also managed to blow a fuse playing with the humidifier.

Since that first night, things have gotten better. Going to sleep seems to be easy-ish, its the early wake up call that has us stumped. You are on the same mattress, why do you need to wake up a half an hour earlier every day?! We have put those black out curtains up (on sale now at Target, FYI) and nada. I think that does help them fall asleep quicker, but still up at 6am with the birds. This 30 minutes has become a challenge as we do not want to get up for work yet/let them out of their room. So we have been putting books in there at night for them to "read" when they get up. The past two mornings Tate has grabbed his blankies and crawled into bed with Gracie. Very cute. This morning, she didn't like it though and was beating him mercilessly when we came in. I think they "get" that we aren't coming in right away, but it's kind of a toss up whether they will take that lying down (excuse the pun). We have screaming and banging on the door some mornings (we installed the safety knob on the inside of their room so they can't get out!) and oh so cute giggles and cuddle time on a pile of blankets on the floor, other days.

So, if I had to grade the transition (which I would because I'm a teacher and all...) I'd give us a B. Room for improvement, but not epic failure.

Fear not, Parents of Toddlers! It can be done! Don't let the bed scare you!