Help transitioning toddler to new room

[mahler5]

I'm worried about C not sleeping well at new place. Or me sleeping in her room with her and not sleeping well.

Lately, if I put her to bed half the time she freaks out if I leave the room and she hears me. So I will stay in there forever until she is catatonic and leave. Or L will put her to bed and have no problems getting out of there in 5 minutes.

I just want her to feel safe and loved in the new house, so I'm fine sleeping in the room with her if need be for a few nights or so but know I can't do that indefinitely, so I'm afraid I might be setting a bad precedent that will be hard to break.

Any ideas?

We are keeping furniture and other stuff the same in her room. And I will put a monitor in there and sleep across the hall for awhile too, so can run if need be. She's in a toddler bed now.

[kh826]

I have zero real advice, since I haven't experienced this yet, but I too am really worried about sleep in the new house. The biggest change for William will be that his new room is about 3 times the size of his current tiny room. The new room also has three big windows that let in lots of light. We have already decided that we will be getting blackout curtains. He is still in his crib and has never tried to climb out (yet!). He will be turning 2 the week after we move. He has always been a super sleeper, but I am really worried that the new environment and so much change in general is going to throw him off.

In terms of Lucie, so is still in our room with us in her little lounger by our bed. We will keep her in with us in the new house too for a while (probably until at least 6 months). Our new master bedroom is also huge compared to our current room, and I'm not sure yet where we will position her lounger relative to our bed... hopefully she won't notice a difference. We will probably be getting blackout curtains for our room too, because we also have three very large windows in our new room.

We talk about the new house A LOT, and William seems to get it. He also talks about the new house a lot (at least 2-3 times a day). We talk to him about his new room, etc. I don't know how much you can really prepare a 22 month old for something like this. I guess only time will tell.

We also use sound machines in both William's current room and our bedroom for Lu, and we will continue to use those. I think we will be sure to keep William's bedding in his crib the same for a while even if It doesn't go with the décor/theme in his new room.

For us another big change will be that we are moving from the city to the suburbs. We get LOTS of city sounds in our current house. There is a bus stop on our corner and we hear cars, sirens, etc. all of the time. Our new house is in a super quiet residential neighborhood, and the house is set back on a hill pretty far from the street. I don't think there will be ANY noise, so I am a little worried that the lack of noise will be a problem. Which seems like a weird problem. We will have to get like 8 sound machines!!!

If anyone has moved with a toddler and/or an infant (Lucie will be about 4 months), I would LOVE to hear your advice.

mahler5 - we can at least commiserate with each other!

[2brides]

You may have to do some modified sleep training. Lay down in her room with her till she is asleep, they lay down/sit up and gradually move towards the door night by night. We had to do this to get G to sleep in his bed. started out next to his crib, then moved 6"-12" away the first night and kept going night by night until finally I was sitting outside their room.

It was basically the Sleep Lady Shuffle (http://sleeplady.com/baby-sleep/sleep-lady-shuffle/)

good luck!

[karlamo]

Never moved with a toddler but we moved when R was 7 months. Like kristylee said, our first room to be set up was his bedroom. I didn't care about the rest of the house but I needed normalcy and familiarly in his room. It's cute I was so focused on this since he slept in our bed till he was like 18 months. Lol.

I would plan on the first 2 weeks being rough as she adjusts to everything being new around her. Good luck! She's in a big girl bed right?

[mahler5]

Thanks everyone!! Things have been hectic but wanted to say that C has been sick so has been in bed with us yesterday and tonight. Tomorrow I'm definitely putting her in her room. I might sleep in there too. I dragged another mattress in there for now. L thinks I'm crazy. So, will update you all next week. I got 4 hours of sleep last night and a 2 hour nap today. Hopefully I will sleep better tonight.

And I still can't find our old baby monitor. We have an audio and video one, but can only find one part to each. I may break down and buy another one tomorrow. I'm feeling very wasteful right now in general.

[Stringy]

We moved last fall when M was about 28 months. We got through it but she did have some stress over it - in the form of developing a pretty severe stutter for a month or so (or at least, that is what we attributed to it, and keep in mind she started a new day care a few weeks before we moved too).

We set up her room first so it was all ready for her. Same furniture and toys and rug and curtains. She loved it, and honestly didn't have many daily signs of stress. She would ask for her old house almost daily, but not in an upset way. She would ask which house we were going to, her new or old house, anytime we were coming home from somewhere. But no major behavior issues.

In our old place, she was a craptastic sleeper forever. Like up multiple times and in our bed for 2 solid years. In the new place, we gave her a month to settle in and met whatever needs she had (one of us often in her room, sitting with her until she fell asleep) and then one day told her it was time for her to fall asleep alone. Her bed was where it could see the hall, so she could hear and see us doing whatever, and she did great and hasn't really looked back in that department, and hasn't slept in our bed in months. Maybe coincidence, maybe the change helped.

We talked a lot about moving beforehand and she saw the house a few times. But, like adding a sibling, she didn't really get it. It may just take time for her to settle in, now she only mentions her old house if we happen to drive by it.

[mahler5]

C has been sleeping well in her new bed first few nights. She did wake up crying a few times first night but settled back down quickly and didn't freak out when I left. Second night was even better with no crying in middle of night. She generally loves her new room.

Now if I could just get used to sleeping in new house and get my bladder capacity back all would be right in the world
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