We decided to transfer BB2 to a Big Boy Bed, even though he isn’t yet two. He isn’t climbing out of the crib or anything, in fact he isn’t even sleeping in the crib at all. With so much change and disruption during his little life, I never got him in an established schedule, and much like BB1, he didn’t turn out to be a big crib fan.
Making the Big Boy Bed Transition
The transition to “Big Boy Bed” for BB1 came when we moved. New house, new bed. The transition was rough, but I attribute it to the move in general, and not necessarily the bed. But in the case of both boys, the transition really comes from not wanting to buy another crib, and not necessarily any other reason. With B3 coming soon, we thought BB2 should get on with the transition sooner rather than later.
His first night in his bed was back in mid-August. I think he got a good 4 hours right off the bat before calling for me to come join him. I am always too tired to crawl back out, which is maybe the reason he can’t sleep without me, but I’m too exhausted at the end of the day to do the bedtime fight to be honest, despite how uncomfortable it is sleeping pregnant on a single mattress with a toddler. I don’t want to jinx it but he did a solid 7 hours alone in his bed last night. I hardly knew what to do with myself. Kept waking up to check the monitor and verify he was still alive in there – why do we do that to ourselves?
A sort of entertaining side note to this story is we ended up buying a bunk bed. Double on the bottom and single on top, which can be converted to two separate beds (as in, not a bunk). We thought this would be great to use for the double bed in the spare room/new baby’s room – which just has a mattress on the floor right now, and then the single bed as BB2’s Big Boy Bed. This is the one we got. HOWEVER – we did not account for how HIGH off the ground the bed would be. It is much higher than just a regular bed frame would be. BB2’s room is pretty small. There’s really only one place to put the bed as the other walls have a window, closet door and doorway, so there isn’t really enough room to have the ladder out. The solution for now is a stack of pillows he climbs to get himself up and in. I’m sure he’ll be big enough to get in and out on his own from the floor in no time, but it’s pretty hilarious to watch for now. It only makes me slightly anxious at night that he’ll try to get out and fall, so I place pillows all around the floor every night before bed.
Anyway, that’s one transition down. (It’s success still to be continued…) We have a big month coming up next: BB1 starts pre-school, BB2 turns 2, and the arrival of new baby. I feel like we have so much to do but also there’s nothing to do but take it all as it comes. How is it already the end of August? Hope these final days treat you well,
Until next time,
– R