Okay, truth time. I have a 2 year old and a baby on the way and I have no idea what I’m doing.
Seriously. Every time I think I have this parenting thing down, #momlife decides to throw me a curve ball and put me in my place. I take great pride in the simple fact that I’ve managed to keep my tiny human alive for 2 years š
When we bought Liam’s crib, we opted for the convertible style that way when it came time to transitioning to a toddler bed, we wouldn’t have to buy anything extra and it would be a simpler move. My husband and I thought that it would be a good idea to move him to a big boy bed around his 2nd birthday. It seemed like the perfect time; his birthday is in February and our little girl wasn’t expected to make her debut until July, so that would give us plenty of time to get him settled before the new baby arrived.
Boy were we wrong.
Here’s what happened…
I anticipated that it would be a rough transition because it is a big change. The first night it took roughly 2 hours for him to settle in his bed and it was pretty much the same every night after that. To make matters worse, now we could not get him to nap AT ALL in his new bed. I kept thinking “maybe he’s ready to drop his nap.” But the more research I did (not to mention my gut feeling), I knew our little one was not ready to drop his nap. Not to mention, now he was going to bed a good 2 hours later and waking up 1-1.5 hours earlier. So total he was only getting maybe 9 hours of sleep a day. I’m no expert, but I know that that is not enough sleep for a 2 year old to be getting in a 24 hour period.
I knew the transition would be challenging, but after over 2 weeks, I knew that we had made the mistake of switching our little guy to a big boy bed too soon. One afternoon when I was trying to get him down for a nap, I KNEW he needed some sleep, so I set up the pack and play in his room. He was so excited to sleep in it that he was climbing the sides of it. I put him in it and he immediately laid down, asked for his blanket and stuffed animals, said “night night mama,” and went to sleep immediately. WHAT?! I had felt uneasy about the switch since the beginning and now I knew that we had pushed this move too soon. That night I talked with my husband and we decided to convert his bed back to a crib and haven’t looked back.
Our mistakes
We definitely pressured ourselves into this milestone because:
1.) We thought that he was getting too old for a crib
2.) We have a new baby coming
3.) We were trying to preemptively make the move before he started climbing out
Our successes
1.) We did talk with him about moving to a big boy bed for a while before making the big switch which is important to help them understand what is going to happen
2.) We got him new dinosaur sheets for his big boy bed to make the change more exciting
Things to keep in mind
1.) Some children find the walls/barriers of a crib to be safe and comforting
2.) Most experts say that closer to age 3 is the magic number for moving to a big kid bed, but if you feel like your little one is ready before then, by all means go for it!!!!
3.) Young children don’t understand the concept of invisible boundaries and therefore don’t understand that they need to stay in their bed. This was definitely the case for us, and the first sign that I knew Liam was not ready for the transition
Bottom line
If your child is comfortable in their crib, don’t rock the boat! Some children will be ready for the change much earlier than 2 years old and some may be much later than 2 years old. There is no “right” time. You will hear me say time and time again; every child is different, so just because your little one is doing something different from someone else’s kid doesn’t mean either one is wrong!
