This week, Lucas hit one of the Big Boy milestones that probably sounds weird/unimpressive to people who don't have children (like the first time they roll over or get big enough to face forward in the car seat) but is a really big deal to a parent. We graduated our little guy from a crib to a toddler bed. I have been resisting the idea for a while, mostly because I agree with the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" philosophy - especially when it comes to my children and sleeping. I love sleep. And as you may recall Lucas has always loved waking up ridiculously early. These two things are very much at odds. It has been an on-going struggle with our little guy, who is seen as "sleeping in" if he wakes up after 6:00am, though for month stretches 5:30am was a sleep in day.
For the first time in his life, however, Lucas has been waking up between 6 and 6:30 consistently every day since late summer. This is insanely exciting for us. The idea of moving him to a new bed and potentially ruining this bliss seemed like a silly idea. Why would we do that to ourselves when he is perfectly fine in the crib and doesn't attempt to climb out? Bu last weekend we were putting our air conditioners away and needed some extra closet space. The toddler bed was taking up much needed room. And so we hastily decided to make the switch.
When we moved Elise into a toddler bed (because
we needed the crib for Lucas) I did all sorts of research about the best way to make the transition (yes there is actually lots of research on this weird topic!). I read that you should set up the bed in the room, along with the crib, and let your child get used to it being in the room and then make the switch gradually once your child has gotten comfortable with it. But with Elise, the second we set up the toddler bed, she immediately said "see ya crib" and never looked back. There was no trauma and absolutely no trouble with the transition whatsoever.
Seeing as how Lucas is pretty laid back, I hoped that his transition to a big boy bed would be similar. But, naturally, things never go the way you expect them to when it comes to children. We set up the bed, and Lucas excitedly climbed into it and sat there for about 5 seconds and said "All done!" and climbed out. That was about the extent to which he wanted anything to do with that bed. When we tried to put him into
it at bedtime, he acted like we were trying to throw him into a pit of snakes. No thank you. Not happening.
Of course, we didn't want to push it for fear of traumatizing him, so we backed off. The next day we tried again and this time was was skeptical but less resistant. And over the course of the week he has gotten used to his big boy bed, though is still not totally loving it and regularly asks if he can sleep in his crib (which is still up in the room because we have been too busy to take it down!). I imagine that he will eventually forget about the lovely crib and start to love having a big boy bed.
But in the meantime, he doesn't yet climb out of this bed and he is still sleeping like a normal person - until at least 6am. Hooray!
For the first time in his life, however, Lucas has been waking up between 6 and 6:30 consistently every day since late summer. This is insanely exciting for us. The idea of moving him to a new bed and potentially ruining this bliss seemed like a silly idea. Why would we do that to ourselves when he is perfectly fine in the crib and doesn't attempt to climb out? Bu last weekend we were putting our air conditioners away and needed some extra closet space. The toddler bed was taking up much needed room. And so we hastily decided to make the switch.When we moved Elise into a toddler bed (because
we needed the crib for Lucas) I did all sorts of research about the best way to make the transition (yes there is actually lots of research on this weird topic!). I read that you should set up the bed in the room, along with the crib, and let your child get used to it being in the room and then make the switch gradually once your child has gotten comfortable with it. But with Elise, the second we set up the toddler bed, she immediately said "see ya crib" and never looked back. There was no trauma and absolutely no trouble with the transition whatsoever.Seeing as how Lucas is pretty laid back, I hoped that his transition to a big boy bed would be similar. But, naturally, things never go the way you expect them to when it comes to children. We set up the bed, and Lucas excitedly climbed into it and sat there for about 5 seconds and said "All done!" and climbed out. That was about the extent to which he wanted anything to do with that bed. When we tried to put him into
it at bedtime, he acted like we were trying to throw him into a pit of snakes. No thank you. Not happening.Of course, we didn't want to push it for fear of traumatizing him, so we backed off. The next day we tried again and this time was was skeptical but less resistant. And over the course of the week he has gotten used to his big boy bed, though is still not totally loving it and regularly asks if he can sleep in his crib (which is still up in the room because we have been too busy to take it down!). I imagine that he will eventually forget about the lovely crib and start to love having a big boy bed.
But in the meantime, he doesn't yet climb out of this bed and he is still sleeping like a normal person - until at least 6am. Hooray!
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