Right now my daughter is standing at the door of her room crying for me. She is supposed to be taking her afternoon nap. In about 5 minutes she will crawl back into her toddler bed, and go to sleep. But right now, listening to her cry, it is hard. My little princess used to be the perfect nap-taker. I was truly able to count on getting things done between the hours of 1:30 pm and 3:00pm in the afternoon. Then, three days after she turned 2 years old, she jumped out of her crib. This happened for four days straight before we found the instruction manual to turn her crib into a toddler bed.
Mommas, we were not prepared for the fallout. Turns out that some children freak out when they are moved from a crib to a toddler bed. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends establishing a bedtime routine well before making the switch. Not only this, but they emphasize sticking to your plan no matter how many tears fall. Additionally, they casually mention that it can take up to 4 weeks before children adjust to the change!
We are nearing the end of week 3 of the transition. The following are a list we compiled that helped us. Its my hope that it helps you also, and that you can avoid some of the heartache we endured:
A. Talk to your child about the transition
It may seem rather elementary, however one thing we neglected to do was actually talk to our toddler about the transition from her crib, to her toddler bed. Even though for her, the crib and toddler bed were one-in-the-same, we simply transformed her bed one day while she was playing with her aunt on the other end of the house. Yes we are the parents, and in the spirit of keeping her safe, we rushed to change the crib from a crib to a bed, but we should have talked about it. So often parents just act without talking to their children about what is going on. We don’t want to fall into this habit, and it actually helps children feel more secure to talk things out. Even if they are toddlers.
B. Be consistent
So much about early childhood has to do with security. Maintaining a daily sleep schedule and consistent bedtime routine can go a long way in setting your child up for success as an adult. And that is not just one mom’s opinion. That is the findings from the national sleep foundation. By making the bedroom and the bedtime routine the same every night, the child does not have to worry about what is coming next. They know. Remember that recent movie Boss Baby? He knew that every night his parents would give him 3 stories, 5 hugs and 1 special song. He had security in that. Our toddlers require the same attention to detail.
In our house, our children know they get 2 stories, 1 thankful prayer, and one last story before lights out. It might take 45 minutes to get them down, but we’ve found that after that 45 minutes of intentionality, our children are asleep, and good for the night.
C. Cuddles
Toddlers love security objects. For my son, he has his giraffe blanket that he holds while he drifts off to sleep. For my daughter, she has a whole menagerie of loveys for her to choose from. One night it is the dragon, one night the lamby, one night a cow and another a penguin. It really doesn’t matter what your toddler’s security object is, so long as they feel secure in their toddler bed when they hold the object. For the longest time we were living under the AAP’s rule that children shouldn’t sleep with anything in their bed. And this is still true for younger children. However, if they are old enough for a toddler bed, then they are old enough to sleep with a toy of their choosing.
*Note, I can’t recommend toys with batteries, even if they are soft. My daughter had a tickle-me-elmo she would not be parted from for the longest time, and one night one of us left it on and she hugged him in the middle of the night. The shaking and laughing woke her up, terrified her, and she has not held that toy ever since.
Dedicated to the Future
So there you have it, the ABC’s of transitioning from a crib to a toddler bed. It might seem difficult at first, but if you remind your child, your spouse and your self that this is simply an exciting stage of life, you’ll be ok! The AAP and Supernanny both say that the first few weeks are the most difficult, but this soon passes. And I can testify to that. The first weeks she spent most of her nap time fighting the change. Now she’s down to a simple 5 minute protest. And I know that next week, or the week after, there won’t be any protest at all.
