[angieandstever]

Gabbie is still sleeping in her crib. She will be 3 on September 1st. Part of me thinks she is ready and old enough to be in a big girl bed. Her crib converts but I still may for the first year buy a cool character toddler bed that I know she will like to help with the transition. Here are my questions.

When did you move your child to a big kid or toddler bed?

What made you decide he/she was ready?

Was it a good move or do you wish you would have waited longer?

Gabbie still fits okay in her crib. She is 36 inches and 26 pounds so size really isn't an issue although with her books and animals it is crowded. Even with that though I don't think she minds but for some reason I keep thinking it is time. Any advice? Thanks!!!!

[DPline]

My oldest son was 2 3/4. We were moving back from England and he came back to a Thomas the Tank Engine bed Grandpa had built. He did great with the transition.

My younger son was also almost 3. We were selling our house and we were arranging furniture to 'stage' the house and he got the Thomas bed and DS#1 got the large guest bed. He also did fine.

DD was barely 2 when she went into a toddler bed and I have regreted it almost daily since. (She is now 5.5.) Again it was during the house sale staging. I really think the crib was a very secure environment which she didn't have with the toddler bed or later when she went to a full size bed. It has been pretty much a given from the day she went into the toddler bed that she will get out of bed and crawl into bed with someone else. And still does. In hindsight I should have left her in the crib. Maybe forever!

Just my experience.

[SKL]

My thought is, if you think it is time, it probably is.

I moved my daughters just after my youngest turned 2, so at 24 and 27 months. I felt it was time because I could sense a transition with my youngest, where she wasn't totally content to be placed in her bed, as she always had been before. They had slept on a friend's sofa bed with no problems around that time, so I thought, let's give it a whirl and convert the cribs.

The girls loved the change, but after the first few days, they started to abuse the freedom by trashing their room at naptime. We had to work through that and they don't do that any more. Next they started coming out of their rooms after bedtime, purportedly to go potty, though they would always go back to bed after a few moments of this silliness. All in all, it was a positive change and I am glad this transition is behind us. The girls are able to get up and go to the bathroom on their own, find me in the night if they are sick, go get their stuffed animals when they want them, retreat or rest when they need a break, snuggle together when it suits them, etc. In short, it puts them in charge of things that they are ready to be in charge of, which is always good in a toddler's world.

Good luck!

[angieandstever]

Thank you!!!

SLK - the potty issue is one of my reasons. Gabbie is potty trained. We still put her in a pull up at night even though it is never wet in the morning just in case. But it never fails, every night at least once, she cries out that she has to go potty so I have to get up and take her. Last night it happened at 2:00am and then 5:15. Even if we restrict her liquid she still has to go. I completely understand this though because I usually wake up at least once a night to go too. I am kind of thinking if we move her to a big girl bed she can go potty on her own then!

Is that bad for me to look at it that way?

[ana-mom]

When did you move your child to a big kid or toddler bed? We moved Ana this past winter (she will be 3 this month)

What made you decide he/she was ready? She was getting too heavy to lift over the crib rails all the time! Plus, Ana is the type of kid that if you tell her to stay in bed and call for a parent if she needs help, she will do just that - she will not wander around out night.

Was it a good move or do you wish you would have waited longer? The first 2 days were tough, she was excited about her 'big girl bed' until the lights went out (she has a nightlight), then I had to sit with her and soothe her until she got drowsy. But, 2 days is a lot better than some stories I have heard. Now, Ana will tell you she is a big girl and Josie is a baby because Josie still sleeps in a crib.

[becky]

We did it around 2.5 and boy do I regret it!! She was perfectly happy in her crib, and I was the one who thought it was time for some cute Big Girl furniture (also went with a house move).

She has been in my bed ever since. As soon as she realized she could get out of her bed, she did, and she is now 7 years old and still sleeps with me!!

I don't know if I took her out of the crib too early, or if she just is insecure, but I really wish I had the days back when she slept peacefully in her crib, instead of in bed with us!!!

[FostAndAdoptMom]

I had my son in a toddler bed from 2-3.8 (almost 4) I moved him because I wanted to have him share a room with my oldest and there were twin beds in that room.

He was ready because I knew he wouldn't fall out And because he'd slept in a twin bed for a couple weeks before... AND the most important reason (for me) was that he was completely potty trained at night for a few months. It's one thing to quickly pull off sheets from a small toddler bed and get new ones on... it's so much more work when it's a bigger bed

I don't regret when I moved him in, we haven't had any issues.

[Mommy K]

We moved our sons a bit earlier than our daughter-at about 2 years old...Our daughter moved at 3 years old because she is very active, but tiny-so she still could not reach over to climb out of the crib, and the crib was in our room. I thought she would not stay in a bed-but I was wrong, she does pretty well!
She moved into her own room-we gave her a choice-our room or her own & she picked her own room..For such an active little one-she goes to bed pretty well, and does not get up at night-calls me for the bathroom etc.
Since she was well potty trained-we felt it was time to move her to her own bed for bathroom ease at night.
hth!

[dac_cincy]

Bug moved just before he was 3. He hated his crib- crued, screamed, fought, etc not to be put in his crib- hindsight, I should have not had a crib.
He moved to the big boy bed on his own- I was planning a transition to a big boy room for him and as soon as I set up the bed, he wanted to sleep in it.

That lasted 5 months and since then he has been in my bed. He refuses to get in his bed, but at least he goes into my bed.


There is a book where Elmo (sesame street) gets a big boy- we read that for months leading up to me putting up the big boy bed.

In your case- she is not getting out of the crib, she is not too big for crib- leave her there.

Just becuase she will be in a toddlet bed, does not mean that she will go to the bathroom in the night by herself. I am assuming that either her room or the hallway or the bathroom will be dark- you should be prepared to still get up with her.

Love to you,
Deb

[robandjulie]

Our crib has a little swinging door built into the front rails which only an adult can unlatch. With DD we started leaving that open when she was about 18-24 mos so she could crawl into her bed and come to us in the morning, but she was a really good sleeper and slept every night from 7 PM to 9 AM solid. The open door access didn't affect it. DH got an itch one day and just converted it to a toddler bed when she was about 2.75 and that was a few nights of total chaos. She was freaked out without her walls to put her feet up on and lean against (she still had the little toddler bed walls, but not the same). We had also just eliminated the bed-binkies a few weeks earlier so I think that was just too much bedtime changes for her. But she did fine after a week or two. She was fully nighttime potty trained by then and still slept from 7-9 without waking once we got past that transition. She went into a big-girl twin bed shortly after her 3rd birthday because we wanted to have her totally settled in there and the crib set up in DS's room before he came home.

DS is 2.5 and still in a completely closed crib--rail all the way up, door closed. He's not ready for that kind of independence. He likes his security and routine too much to mess with it.

If we were doing it over with DD I'd still do the open door part when we did, but I'd have waiting for the actual toddler bed because the crib was a security thing for her and she mourned it a bit. If there's any way to just remove the front rail (day bed style) or remove 5-6 slats to make a doorway, I'd look into that as a compromise. Or set up both and let her choose for the first few weeks until she's ready to be done with the crib if you think that will work with her personality. I think in the end you know her best and what will work for her.

[angieandstever]

Thanks everyone for the replies!

I think for now I will leave her and maybe revisit it when she turns 3 or until she starts climbing out. I do question if moving her will even change the night potty thing. Thinking about it, I think Deb is right, she will likely wake me up anyway, which is fine. She is actually super cute when I take her potty in the middle of the night even though I am half awake! Thanks again! I really appreciate it.

[CEB]

We left DS in a crib until he started climbing out - and that happened 2 weeks before his 3rd birthday. I would have kept him there until he was 12 years old if he would have stayed put. He is not close to potty trained at night so that was not a major consideration (he is pretty good during the day but not ready for night yet).

The transition took 3 or 4 nights - we left him in his crib with the bed set up for one night and then switched the next and then took down the crib. We talked about it alot - why we were switching (so he would not get hurt when he gets out of bed) and the advantages of his new bed. We also let him pick the bed out of 2 or 3 finalists we picked.

[kirbystarcat]

We made the move to a toddler bed with DD at about 2 3/4. She had started to jump holding the side of the crib.
We had a big problem with her getting up and trashing her room at naptime and at bedtime that we just had to work through and are still working through somewhat.
We keep her in her room with a baby gate across the door to her room. (We don't have a good place to secure it in the hallway and I would worry about her wandering near the atircase in the dark) She is pottying by herself at night though. We keep a potty chair in her room that she gets up and uses when needed. Sometimes she still calls us to tell us what she is doing, other times she just does it.
We made the switch to a twin bed this weekend at 3 yrs. 8 mo. I kind of wish we had just gone straight to the twin bed as she is staying in it so much better than the toddler bed.

[2forus]

My dd will also be 3 on sept 1 and one of my boys will be 3 on sept 4. I debated about doing it for awhile and had mentioned it to her. The also spend the night at my parents about once a month and since they're too big for packnplays my dd now sleeps in a toddler bed there (as of last month). She came home and I asked if she wanted a big girl bed and she said yes so we tried it. It's been about 3 weeks and no issues. She still calls for me when she wakes and never gets out of bed. We also moved my son into a toddler bed a few days later even though I was hesitant about that (2 boys are in one room), but we haven't had any issues with him either. My kids still easily fit in a crib and had never tried climbing out of them, but they love their toddler beds.

[Carrie7310]

I moved both of my girls into a twin bed straight out of their crib. My older daughter was almost 2 and the baby was 26 months. They both did great. They actually keep their blankets on better so I don't worry about them freezing at night.

I moved them because I needed to pass on the crib to my youngest and this time my sister needs it since hers was ruined in a flood.

I think the biggest success factor for my girls was setting up a similar bedtime routine to what they were use to when in a crib and once they were moved, I took the crib down right away so I couldn't put them back in.

Good Luck!