Okay, she just turned 3 so I am not pushing this yet (no other siblings behind her to make her move) but i just want some no nonsense advice for easing the transition for when i do this. She LOVES her crib and has no desire to crawl out, etc. She is truly comforted by the walls of her crib and is very much a solid sleeper. We are potty training and got the #1 down pat but iffy on doing #2. I don't want all of this change to happen at once for her but it seems to be heading that way. Any suggestions? I have already bought new sheets for her queen bed thinking I would change the scenery, have a side rail and will most likely put the mattress on the floor if we need to.
Thanks!
We have a convertable crib and turned it into her "big girl bed". She loves it. I think it is comforting to her that it's still her same bed, even if she can get out of it at night, she never does.
Is her crib convertible? We just turned ours into the toddler bed and it worked great. My youngest felt like he was still cozy with 3 sides around him and it is super low to the ground. A queen size bed seems like a really big jump to make if she feels safe and secure in her crib. If you do use the queen size bed leaving it on the flood is definitely the way to go and maybe slid it into a corner so there are two sides so it feels a little more like her crib.
my son was 3 and loved his crib also! he got potty trained and would wake up and yell downstairs, "i need to go potty", so I'd have to run upstairs to take him. That's when we decided to put him in a twin bed in the downstairs bedroom. We put a twin mattress on a monkey board directly on the frame, that way it's really low to the ground like a toddler bed, and when he's older, we'll just stick a boxspring on it. He also has his comfort "blanky" so that still kept him comfortable. Also, his grandma had just bought him a new really soft and fluffy twin blanket from Target (Shabby Chic collection), so he actually did very well in his new bed. We took the crib apart and put it in the attic, and he used to ask about it some. We just said, "you're a big boy now and cribs are for babies so it's in the attic now".
A few weeks before this, I babysat my friends 11mo. twins, and one slept in the crib, so he understood that it was for babies. This way, he could get up on his own to use the bathroom, and he just went straight back to his bed, even in the middle of the night. Best of all, I don't have to jump up from a deep sleep! good luck.
we converted at 31/2 she never climbed out or even tried too-the longer u wait the better and the funny part is-ever since we put her in her bed she still waits for me to come get her and never gets out of her bed-LOL! My son who is 3 is still in his crib and never is standing or tries to get out either so I will most likely do the same for him this summer. Good Luck~ L.:)
You're really smart not to rush it. Why mess with a good thing? I'd work on the potty training til it's finished, then move her. The older she is the more rationally she'll be able to deal with differences brought about by the "big bed".
The advice from our pediatrician was to keep them in their cribs as long as possible as it's the safest environment for them to be in. Since she's not climbing out, I wouldn't rush it.
We transitioned our son around 2.5 years and have been paying the price ever since. He has a queen bed (mattress and boxspring on the floor) that we put put pillows around to give him the feeling of security. He ends-up in bed with us every night.
I don't believe in locking the door, putting up baby gates for safety reasons as well as not being disruptive to his sister.
Hindsight being 20/20, I would definitely have waited until he was more excited about it.
sounds like you have it all under control!! :) You could rather then put the matress on the floor just push the bed up against the wall so one side is the wall and other side is your rail you have. I have that now for my 4 1/2yr old altho he doesn't need the wall but he sure loves it there til he loses a toy down the side then its "mooooommmmmmy!" anyway I'd say you're doing good. My oldest which is the 4 1/2yr old took very easily to his twin bed he started with and loved it and now he has a full size. the twin however sits in his little brother's room who's about to turn 2. He wasn't wild on it and fell asleep on the floor the time or two i tried it and just loved his crib as well so I went on craigslist and found a nice inexpensive solid wood toddler bed frame for him and he loves it! My hubby thought I was nuts wasting the 20 bucks I did but He can get another couple yrs out of it then he will have no choice but to go into the twin. :). However I have to say my boys are climbers but i think most boys tend to be. So that said my oldest was in his twin bed at 17mo and his brother waited til 19mo before climbing out or so.
