Our house was built in the late 1930s. The original structure is about 1500 square feet, comprised of a kitchen, a dining and living room, 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. The previous owners renovated the first floor and then added an addition – a second floor, adding two more bedrooms, a bathroom and a loft area. Our bedroom is now on the 2nd floor and Coco sleeps in a small nursery down the hall from us. Pea sleeps in a large bedroom on the 1st floor. It works well, we all have some privacy, and by the time Coco needs a larger room and her own bathroom, I imagine we will be in a new home.
This morning, I woke up at 7, as usual. I headed out to the loft to check my email, read some blogs; the same routine I have every morning. When Coco started to stir, my husband announced, “I’m going to get my baby girl.” I assumed he meant Coco. I continued on with my business. Pea usually wakes up at about 7:30 and so I figured I had a few more minutes. All of a sudden, I hear, “hi mama. What you doing?” It was Pea. Standing at my left side. Upstairs, in the loft. With her pajamas half on and half off. I called to my husband, “I thought you were getting Coco?” He said, “I am!” And I said, “Then how did Pea get up here?”
He walked out of Coco’s room. Dumbfounded. He looked at me. I looked at him. Pea said “hi, Daddy.”
Oh, it has happened. The day we’ve been dreading. She can scale the side of her crib. Good Lord.
We’ve been wondering when it would be time to move her into her own bed. A “big girl” bed. We agreed that it would happen at 3. I have a beautiful heirloom sleigh bed that was mine as a child. When Pea was born, my mother had it sent to us here in Texas so that Pea could use it when she got older. It’s been in our attic, all wrapped up and waiting for the big day. So imagine my surprise when – once again – things did not go according to my plan. Is it even possible to put a 28-month old in a bed? Will she stay in it all night? Or will she wander the house, aimlessly in the dark, getting into all kinds of mischief?
I just am not prepared for this. She’s not even out of diapers yet!
comments
My son went to the toddler bed at a tender 21 months. He had learned to flip himself over the rail, but not how to land gracefully on his feet. The first 5 days were interesting but he adjusted beautifully in the 10 months since. It makes bedtime story reading much cozier!
I just found you blog and love it!
Melissa, I know it’s shocking, but as several of the comments have said, our little ones rarely stay on the schedule we set! You may want to consider one of those attachments (rails) you put on side of regular beds. It prohibits rolling off onto the floor. I think I’ve seen them at babies r us. Congrats! This is a wonderful milestone.
Hey Melissa-
WOW! No wonder you had a heart attack! We moved Kendall out of her bed at 2 years, 7 months. And it went great. We made a huge deal of what a big girl she was – got her a special dolly for the bed and let her be involved in picking out the bedding. We decided that the day had come and one Sunday morning my husband disassembled the crib while I was downstairs playing with her and her brother (I didn’t want her seeing him pull apart her crib – I thought it might be confusing) and he put her new bed up and the minute she saw it she ran and jumped into it. She LOVES it. I cried and she barely noticed a difference. It took about a month before she realized that she could climb in and out by herself.
For me it was more the emotional attachment to my first born, baby girl not so much being a baby anymore. I just had to do it. The sting wore off quickly after seeing how excited she was to be in a big girl bed.
Kendall wasn’t out of diapers yet either. I thought the potty training would come first…turns out…not so much for us! She potty trained over this past summer. And honestly, that wasn’t so hard either. Everyone makes it out to be really scary…it’s not.
You’re going to do awesome as is she. Best of luck and thanks for always writing.
=)
Meredith
I just discovered your blog this morning!!! I love it!
We had to move my son out of his bed at 13 months, he has always been a climber! He was 9 months old when he climbed out of his crib the first time.. We lowered the bed, but I knew then that it wouldn’t be long before he would have to be moved to a toddler bed. He has done great in it! I actually think that the earlier the easier. He spent the first week thinking that he couldn’t get out of bed, he would sit there and play until I came and got him up. He has since learned that he can get out of bed, but he walks straight to our bedroom. It worked well for us to move him early, but if definitely depends on the child. Carter was just ready! Good luck with Pea!!!
Yeah! Why can’t kids do stuff on *our* schedule, huh?
I’m with Starr! We had to move our 16 month old out of the crib to make way for her newly arrived brother… it worked out just fine.
She can TOTALLY do it at 28 months! It’s never as bad as you dread it will be. Just keep up the same bedtime routine and I’m sure she’ll do great!
Dear Melissa:
Our son learned to get out of his crib at about Pea’s age. My husband and his family were anxious for him to be in a big boy bed, so they took apart the crib and moved it to the basement. I was about 4 months pregnant with my second (who is the same age as your littlest!). Anyway, our son got up repeatedly all night long, turned his light on, and played for hours. After one month of the worst nights of sleep since he had been a baby, I couldn’t take it any more.
We finally figured out that we could lower the mattress setting on the crib by drilling new holes farther down. This kept him in the crib until about 2 months ago when he was finally tall enough and strong enough to climb out of his crib. Now he naps and sleeps all night very well in his new toddler bed.
So Pea might do really well in a big girl bed…or she might not. Good luck! Weisbluth has good stuff on transitioning to beds for toddlers, too.
Take care, and thanks for your blog!
Kathy
Melissa,
I came across your website last week and have been hooked ever since. I am the mother of two and we just relocated to WI so I could stay home and give more time to our girls and our online business. As wonderful as it is there are those crazy days that you wonder what we are doing. Your website is so real and helps us all feel that someone understands. My husband has been bugging me to write more about our everyday life in our family blog and I said that no one would ever want to read it and here I am reading yours everyday.
We moved our daughter to a toddler bed at 26 mo. and at first it was a struggle keeping her in bed. She made many trips to our room in the middle of the night. We live in a one story house and our room is very close to hers so she did not roam the house much. She just would come wake us up it was many long nights of walking her back to her room to tuck her in. She gets up much earlier these days, but now she comes to cuddle with mom and dad.
I have friends that have used gates in front of the door, or locked the door from the outside. I was not comfortable with having her locked in the room but we live in a small house and I wake up pretty easily. We have only caught her awake without us twice. Once she woke up before us in the morning and was playing in living room, and another she found some candy on the coffee table and ate it before waking us up.
Good Luck I’m sure you’ll figure out what will work best for your family. Thanks for sharing your family with us!!!