TTMA toddler beds

[sabrinaml]

I'm trying to decide if we want to keep C in his crib and go out and buy a 2nd crib for the new babe or if we should give C the spare full size bed we have. (He would start with just the mattress on the floor.)
Has anyone else besides tiffbot made the switch? Thoughts on making the switch? If you haven't, when do you plan on switching? Will you do a traditional toddler bed, mattress on the floor or something different?
Side note: C has not tried to escape his crib yet (knock on wood!)

[baytosa2013]

I got nothing to offer because we haven't even wanted to think about this hellion uncaged. Maybe you can find or use a crib that converts that way he still ends up with the toddler bed as soon as he's ready if you aren't ready to just do the mattress yet?

[pghtruelove]

Will move J when she starts trying to escape her crib. We are going to go with a twin bed instead of toddler bed, because it will be more comfortable to lay in with her.

[jillywilly]

We are nowhere near ready to give up the crib yet because it takes my kid a while to settle down, so I'm convinced he'd never sleep if he weren't contained - he also hasn't tried escaping yet thanks to his sleep sack. His crib is one that converts to a toddler bed, and then to a full size bed - we bought the crib and all the conversions for it at Buy Buy Baby, and plan on it being his bed basically until he graduates and moves out, so maybe look into something like that? I don't remember how much we paid for everything, but I don't think it was bad, especially considering the long lifetime we should get out of it.

[sugarkissed]

B will be in her crib for life. Haha.

I think that we switched DD1 shortly after her second birthday because she was constantly climbing out. We did have both in cribs for a few months and then just converted A's crib to a toddler bed.

[alayne926]

I'm team "In the crib till she climbs out!"

[Widget123]

Not moving LO to a toddler or big kid bed yet, but when we did so with DD, we went straight to a twin bed with bed rails, even though her crib also converts to a toddler bed. If your crib does not already convert to a twin bed, I would suggest going straight to a regular twin or full bed vs. buying a new separate toddler bed frame.

[veggiemo]

Keep them in the crib until they climb out. Also, team twin bed (skip the toddler). That way you can lay with them in bed to read books or join them if they wake up in the middle of the night, etc. DS has never fallen out so we didn't need rails but if you have a mover, I would start with the floor mattress as some suggested and then buy the frame later.

sabrinaml, do you have a co-sleeper or pack and play that new baby will be in? LO was in our room for at least 6 months after he was born, so don't forget to add that onto your timeline for when you need the crib available.

[billyhorrible]

Keep him in the crib as long as possible! The longer you wait, the easier the transition is. If you have to move them to a bed early because of crawling out, then by all means do what is safest.

Moving to a bed can be a really rough transition. Most kids don't look at it as a "yay! I'm growing up!" This is especially true if you're giving the crib, "their" bed, to a new baby. A new baby is a hard enough transition on its own, which brings up feelings our kids don't have the emotional vocabulary to express.


We converted the crib to a toddler bed when LBB was almost 3 because he was waking at night to go to the bathroom and it was hard to lift him out of the crib so often. Because he was older, he had no problem with staying in the bed without rails. He never left his room and roamed, or made his way into our bed.

[sabrinaml]

I would make the switch before baby comes. Likely march/April.
We have a pack in play that we could set up in our room, but neither of us really want baby in the same room. We had to with C due to moving and then his room not being ready right away but want to avoid that with this one. New nursery will be the room right next to ours.
His current crib is a 4-1 if we want to keep it and have it grow with him. I just don't know if I want to buy a second crib if I don't really need to or if we decide to transition C to the full a little sooner.
Thanks for all your input!! I will talk with DH more about what he's thinking (I brought it up once a few weeks ago but he just brushed it off.)

[belle0720]

We moved G from her crib to a twin size around 15 months. That way I can lay in there with her if needed and also because we had the twin and crib in there so it was taking up a lot of space.

It's actually a day bed and isn't on the floor but we put a rail guard on. She has never gotten out of bed on her own--I think because of the rail guard? She does get out of bed on her own if she's on our bed or my mom's bed alone.

G has always preferred sleeping in a bed though. She was originally in a bassinet, then we bedshared and she HATED the crib, then we got a dockatot that we used in our bed, then moved it into the crib and she would finally sleep in there, then we moved the dockatot to the twin size bed, and last week I took the dockatot out because I don't think it's really serving a purpose anymore.

[dmoney]

Jan 5, 2017 13:01:23 GMT -5 budders said:

Jan 5, 2017 12:51:58 GMT -5 belle0720 said:

We moved G from her crib to a twin size around 15 months. That way I can lay in there with her if needed and also because we had the twin and crib in there so it was taking up a lot of space.

It's actually a day bed and isn't on the floor but we put a rail guard on. She has never gotten out of bed on her own--I think because of the rail guard? She does get out of bed on her own if she's on our bed or my mom's bed alone.

G has always preferred sleeping in a bed though. She was originally in a bassinet, then we bedshared and she HATED the crib, then we got a dockatot that we used in our bed, then moved it into the crib and she would finally sleep in there, then we moved the dockatot to the twin size bed, and last week I took the dockatot out because I don't think it's really serving a purpose anymore.

I've actually wondered myself if switching to a bed would help V sleep better. He does OK in the crib once he's asleep, but it's still a process to get him asleep before he goes in there. The idea being able to lay down with him until he falls asleep is pretty appealing, because I feel like it would give us a more normal bedtime routine. It would also be nice to be able to lay with him in the middle of the night in his bed, and then move myself back to my own bed when he falls back asleep instead of him coming in bed with us.

We do have the crib that converts to both toddler bed and full-size bed, so maybe I'll talk to H about what he thinks.

So one of my bosses did this with his daughter from an early age and now she cant fall asleep unless someone is laying in bed with her.  He hates it but at the same time once she is asleep she is asleep.

[blueskiessmiling]

DD is still in her crib, largely because she's still a maniac getting to sleep at times. She doesn't try to escape as long as she's in her Zipadeezip- otherwise, climbing out is the very first thing she tries to do.

I never ever would have thought she'd do okay in a twin bed st this point, but she's slept through the night in one with bed rails the past two times she's stayed the night at my parents' without issue. So, your LO could surprise you and be fine in a regular bed if you go that route:

[erbear]

#TeamCrib4Lyfe

[mrsmonogrammed]

C will be staying in her crib until she climbs out. So far she has only tried to climb IN it. Planning to switch her to a twin or full size bed when she's ready.

[dogmama22]

Also doing this when we move. We'll convert the crib to a full size bed. I got some cute new sheets at Target with their cartwheel deal yesterday. He sleeps so much better when he doesn't feel "caged in." He does a floor bed at my nanny family's house, so I'm not worried about him sleeping. His routine right now is to lay in our bed with DH and read until he falls asleep and then he moves him. It will make it easier for them to just lay in his bed and not have to move him later. We'll do rails for now.

[tiffbot]

My anecdotes:

Neither of my kids were crib escapers.

DS was 20 months when we moved him. New baby on the way and was hoping it would just work. It's just so his personality to know he has a job to do or something grown up that's his and he sleeps better in his bed than he ever did his crib, though he was a very consistent sleeper anyway by the time he was 1. Hes one of those kids that will pass out anywhere, or if we are away will accept right away what we tell him is his bed.

DD was 18 months when we moved her. She was not and never was a consistent crib sleeper and I just had the urge to move her to her bed feeling like well, what's the point of continuing to try to train her to sleep in her crib if we're going to switch in a few months anyway. She's incredibly monkey see and monkey do and likes to follow big brother's actions so thought maybe she'd like that better. I don't know if the bed has helped her sleep, with switching her in December we were gone lots and she was hard core teething all month, but it didn't make her sleep worse. She got her last tooth while we were away just now so I'm looking forward to seeing how that changes her sleep patterns now that we are back at home and we'll get settled into a routine again. She slept 10 hours straight in it last night but we also had a long and busy travel day, lol, I don't have accurate "data" yet

[Deleted]

We have the IKEA bunk bed. She sleeps on the bottom which is basically a floor mattress so she can't fall out of bed. Poof. We moved her in there at about 15 months but she never slept in a crib. Before that we bedshared. So far it's going well.

[Deleted]

sabrinaml

Does DS like his crib? In that case keep him in there as long as possible.

If you do decide to move him don't do it too close to the time the baby comes since it can be emotional for the child for a new baby and big boy bed transition at same time.

We moved DS to a twin bed at around 22 months and then his sister was born when he was 2 yrs and 3 months old. He wasn't climbing out of the crib but he was so heavy and so tall that it was painful when I was that pregnant to lift him out of the crib so that's why we moved him. The transition was easy. We got him new fire truck bedding and he was so excited to be in his new bed.

[silv3rlining]

With DS we switched at 19.5 months because someone gave us a toddler crib and the ped had suggested doing it no later than 2-3 months before he new baby arrived so he didn't think the new baby kicked him out of the crib. With LO we actually switched her at 15 months (super early-but she's a climber and I had a few "scares".), she did surprisingly well, we had converted the crib to toddler but found it was a lot higher off the ground than he regular toddler bed so we ended up transforming the crib to a full bed for DS and gave her the toddler bed. I know people that sill have heir 3.5 year olds in cribs so it's really a personal choice/each kid.