... Daddy took off the front rail of her crib and put up the toddler rail.
Evie did not know about this change until bedtime. In fact, I changed her into her pajamas after bath with her back to her bed. It wasn't until I picked her up that she noticed her bed. She pointed to it and smiled. We didn't make a big deal about it. We just went through our normal bedtime routine. Daddy put her in it, just like her bed. We didn't hear a peep from her until morning.
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| Someone else thinks he is sleeping in there |
So how is it going 4 days in?
No different than when she was in her crib. She has napped her usual 2 hours, slept 11 hours overnight, and hasn't gotten out once.
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| Proud of her new bed |
Jason and I will admit we haven't handled some situations with our kids correctly; however, I think we knocked this transition out of the ballpark. We've been listening to our friends and family transition kids to "big girl/boy" beds for months now. We quietly made a decision about how we wanted to do it.
Here's why we think Evie's transition was so smooth:
1. We did not force Evie to move to a big bed when Braylen was born. We bought a 2nd crib for Braylen
2. Evie climbed out of her crib three times. All of these times were at the end of her time out or as we were walking into the room to get her up from nap. The last time she climbed out she bit her tongue. I think the blood scared her enough not to do it again. We decided to move her now since she wasn't making a conscious decision to escape it.
3. We trained her for 6 weeks with this clock. When the clock has a yellow face, Evie can call for us/be up. At bed and nap time, she presses the respective button to turn the clock face a shade of blue. The clock is set for 2 hours at nap time. As long as it is blue, she knows to stay in her bed (with her crib she couldn't get out anyway). Her clock stays blue until 6:45 AM. She knows when it turns yellow, she is allowed to get up. Again, she was in her crib, so she couldn't escape, but she understood the concept. She was eating this concept up.
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| "My Tot Clock" bought on Amazon |
4. We did not bride her or make a big deal about moving to a big girl bed.
5. Nothing really changed- her bed is in the same room, same spot, same sheets... just the front rail changed slightly.
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| Showing us how she can get in herself |
6. We picked a week when Daddy is home to give me extra support. Plus Daddy gets the kids to stay in bed much better than me!
7. We upgraded to a video monitor to be able to see what she is doing. We can also talk to her through the monitor to check if her clock is yellow. She will yell back "yes!" or "NO!". She is responding well to Daddy's instructions of laying back down.
I was really nervous about this transition. She is still a great napper and I need that time to regroup. I am thrilled with how well Evie made this change. I hope she will continue to nap once Daddy goes back to work in the new year!
2 comments:
So jealous of your easy transition! Luke sleeps fine in the bed, just getting him to stay in it until he is asleep is the problem unless we are there...the tot clock may be making an appearance in our house soon. Go big girl Evie!!
So glad the transition was easy! I stress about ch-ch-changes so much that it's always a sweet relief when it's over.
I LOVE that clock! Ella went to the big girl bed at 16 months and we gave her a crash course in time telling: the short hand MUST be past the 7 in order to get out of bed! Kate got a toddler bed at exactly the same age but we made it easier on ourselves by putting a digital clock in her room. I think we need that clock for Anne. We'll just dumb it down a notch for each kid!
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