Transitioning from crib

[Anonymous]

We’ll probably finally move my kiddo from crib to regular bed and wanted gut check and any tips from parents who have been there. We thought to put it up as long as possible. She will be 3 soon, and has been asking questions about what the railings on the crib are for and telling us the other night that she wants to climb out.

Once they’re free, do you let them leave their room at night? For ours, her bedroom opens immediately to the stair landing so we’re sleepily walk out and accidentally leap down the stairs, or that she’ll intentionally make her way downstairs by herself in the middle of the night and do god knows what. Gate isn’t that helpful because of weird rowhouse layout and right now the gate at her door itself is one she has figured out and opens with no problem.

On one hand, it’d be nice if she could just walk to our room by herself in the middle of the night whenever she wakes up scared or needing a cuddle instead of us having to get up. On the other hand, because of the stairs, we’re thinking to keep her locked in. Is that bad? Any other suggestions? What’s your house setup like and how did you handle this stage?

[Anonymous]

DD went into a twin bed at 2 and 2 mos.
We left her door ajar, our door wide open and a gate across the top of the stairs.
If she woke up in the morning she just came into our room. Good sleeper at night so no issues there.
We used a pool noodle under the fitted sheet to stop her rolling out. I didn’t use an s risky railing because we read books in her bed at night and I just didn’t want to deal with a railing.

[Anonymous]

We had a doorknob cover type thing that made it hard to open the door..but my kiddo was out of the crib around 18 months due to the arrival of #2. By 3 maybe it's fine even with stairs. Keep a monitor going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a doorknob cover type thing that made it hard to open the door..but my kiddo was out of the crib around 18 months due to the arrival of #2. By 3 maybe it's fine even with stairs. Keep a monitor going.

And we just started with a twin mattress on the floor but again much younger kid.

[Anonymous]

It really depends on your kid. My first was a rule follower. She could get up to pee or when the first number on her clock said 7. She went to a full bed with no rail around 2.5.

DC2 was not as much of a rule follower, so we kept her in all the way to 3, with a mattress on the floor of her crib since she would climb out otherwise. Once we moved her to a bed, we let her come get us when the first clock number was 6. She went to a full bed with no rail. We spent lots of nights silently walking her back to bed.

My youngest went to a twin bed with a foam bumper. He was not night trained yet, so he was not needing to use the bathroom yet at night. He also couldn't read numbers, so we got him a "green light" clock for when he was allowed to wake up. We used a gate at the top of the stairs mostly so no one would fall in the night on their way to the bathroom (middle dc also sleep-walked). They certainly could traverse the gate during the day, but when half asleep it prevented anyone from falling down the stairs.

[Anonymous]

I actually think life is better if you go to them when they need you. That puts the power with you, particularly around AM wake up time. And this is easy to do around 3, that’s when we transitioned out of cribs for our kids.

We got an okay to wake clock. Set it to red as a nightlight. Then it turns green at 7:30am (or whatever time you’re usually getting her up). When the light is red, you stay in bed. We told them if they got up when the light was red, that told us they weren’t ready to sleep in a big kid bed, and we’d put the side back on the crib. We even left the side of the crib against the wall in their room for a month or so. Our first has never stepped a toe out of bed when the light was red. Our second got up - the first two mornings, we walked her right back to bed with a warning (you gotta keep a CLOSE eye on the monitor at first). After the third time, we put the side back on the crib. Two months later we tried again and she’s never gotten out on red since.

If they need us, they call us and we go to them. Much less frequently, I’m sure, then if they had the freedom to come to us whenever the want. Oldest is 6 and that’s still what we do.

Safety wise - I think you either need a gate or to lock her in at night until you are confident she can navigate the stairs while sleepy (prob age 4/5ish).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually think life is better if you go to them when they need you. That puts the power with you, particularly around AM wake up time. And this is easy to do around 3, that’s when we transitioned out of cribs for our kids.

We got an okay to wake clock. Set it to red as a nightlight. Then it turns green at 7:30am (or whatever time you’re usually getting her up). When the light is red, you stay in bed. We told them if they got up when the light was red, that told us they weren’t ready to sleep in a big kid bed, and we’d put the side back on the crib. We even left the side of the crib against the wall in their room for a month or so. Our first has never stepped a toe out of bed when the light was red. Our second got up - the first two mornings, we walked her right back to bed with a warning (you gotta keep a CLOSE eye on the monitor at first). After the third time, we put the side back on the crib. Two months later we tried again and she’s never gotten out on red since.

If they need us, they call us and we go to them. Much less frequently, I’m sure, then if they had the freedom to come to us whenever the want. Oldest is 6 and that’s still what we do.

Safety wise - I think you either need a gate or to lock her in at night until you are confident she can navigate the stairs while sleepy (prob age 4/5ish).

How did you handle night training with these parameters? They'd call you and you'd take them to the bathroom?

Our kid did really well when we started potty training many months ago, but we didn't cross the bridge of the nighttime part because of this room/stairs issue. Our attempts at gating the stairs all failed (particularly weird row house setup) so we ended up with gate directly at the door, no access to the hall. But this discussion is reminding me we'll want to address that in near future as kiddo has been asking about not wearing a diaper for naps and is increasingly testing/fighting/questioning why it's needed at bedtime.

[Anonymous]

We did twin bed with one of those guardrails, a doorknob thing so they couldn’t leave the room, and kept the video baby monitor in. We also put a baby gate at the top of the stairs

[Anonymous]

Her crib doesn't convert to a toddler bed? Definitely put a gate at the top of the stairs!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually think life is better if you go to them when they need you. That puts the power with you, particularly around AM wake up time. And this is easy to do around 3, that’s when we transitioned out of cribs for our kids.

We got an okay to wake clock. Set it to red as a nightlight. Then it turns green at 7:30am (or whatever time you’re usually getting her up). When the light is red, you stay in bed. We told them if they got up when the light was red, that told us they weren’t ready to sleep in a big kid bed, and we’d put the side back on the crib. We even left the side of the crib against the wall in their room for a month or so. Our first has never stepped a toe out of bed when the light was red. Our second got up - the first two mornings, we walked her right back to bed with a warning (you gotta keep a CLOSE eye on the monitor at first). After the third time, we put the side back on the crib. Two months later we tried again and she’s never gotten out on red since.

If they need us, they call us and we go to them. Much less frequently, I’m sure, then if they had the freedom to come to us whenever the want. Oldest is 6 and that’s still what we do.

Safety wise - I think you either need a gate or to lock her in at night until you are confident she can navigate the stairs while sleepy (prob age 4/5ish).

How did you handle night training with these parameters? They'd call you and you'd take them to the bathroom?

Our kid did really well when we started potty training many months ago, but we didn't cross the bridge of the nighttime part because of this room/stairs issue. Our attempts at gating the stairs all failed (particularly weird row house setup) so we ended up with gate directly at the door, no access to the hall. But this discussion is reminding me we'll want to address that in near future as kiddo has been asking about not wearing a diaper for naps and is increasingly testing/fighting/questioning why it's needed at bedtime.

PP here. We started with naps, well after (at least a year) good habits had been established around the toddler bed and obeying the red light. We put the little potty right next to their bed (with a roll of TP for our daughter) and told them they could get up to pee and get right back in bed. They’ve had no problem with this. Same at night now for one of them, again no problem. The bathroom is close to the bedroom so I don’t anticipate that being a tough transition, but we’re in no rush.

[Anonymous]

We baby proofed the room as much as possible to make getting out of bed less appealing- we also put a cheap amazon alam on the door so we theoretically heard when she opened the door. We did gate the top of the stairs. Whats the layout that makes it hard?

[Anonymous]

Hmm. We have a gate at the top of stairs, just to prevent an accidental fall. It is not in a room doorway.

We leave all BR doors open, always have.

We happened to have a cushioned play mat, so put that right next to the bed. They have never fallen out of bed, but if they did then the play mat would cushion the landing.

[Anonymous]

Also be sure the dresser is bolted to the wall.

[Anonymous]

We also made sure the doors leading outside were childproofed.

[Anonymous]

You may want to wait a little longer. I transitioned my kid at 2.5 and had a total nightmare of a time/it destroyed his sleep. A sleep consultant told us most kids need to be in a crib until at least 3;they just cannot understand the boundary without an actual boundary. Waited until about 3.5 with our second, and it went much better.