Yesterday afternoon we took the side off Squeeze's crib and put up the toddler rail. We did this because 1) we may need her crib for a new baby and 2) she's getting too heavy to heave in and out of that thing! When I was pregnant with Squeeze (our second), we moved Squiggle (our first) to a toddler bed at a pretty early age. I had heard that it might be better for a child who's handing their bed down to a younger sibling, to not make the change at the same time as the baby's arrival. Baby comes home from hospital, big sister gets the boot. Traumatizing. Makes sense.
Squiggle did great with the change. We had zero problems with her. No tears. No fighting. We joked that somehow she still thought she couldn't get out. Eventually she did figure out how to get up and turn her light on so she could read books and play. We often didn't discover her until WE were going to bed at 10! Sometimes, her light would be on and we would go in to turn it off and she would be sound asleep in her bed. Overall, so easy with her.
Squeeze is a different person. She enjoys life. She likes her independence. She likes to run. She likes to get reactions out of us. She likes to try things.
The first night went fairly well. Two seconds after closing their door for the night, Squeeze came running down the hallway with this look on her face that said, "Sweet! I can get out of here!" We told her otherwise. She was disappointed. We had to go in maybe twice more? Both girls were asleep in under an hour. This morning, Squeeze let herself out of her room half asleep. It wasn't much earlier than normal, but I think we may be in for a few early mornings with her in the future.
We are in the middle of the first nap time now. I have had to lay her down three times, I think. Poor thing was crying as if she didn't know what to do with herself. New boundaries are scary.
I think she is finally asleep...
I think this move was the most traumatic thing in my life as Mama. The first naptime did it (he's John after all), but that first one was a doozy. We BOTH cried ourselves to sleep.
ReplyDeleteI've already told you we just made this move with Maureen. She wanted a bed sooo badly. She would get into bed with either of her sisters during our bedtime routine. She'd lay down on their pillow and pull the covers up, and was so sad when we took her out. But I still wasn't ready to put her into a toddler bed. I started thinking about it more seriously when we noticed she was trying to climb out of her crib. But the night she actually flipped herself out of it -- that did it. :)
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