I’ve got beds on the brain.
And unfortunately, it has nothing to do with me getting into one.
(Although I do have an excuse with a killer sinus infection.) Okay, I did type this from bed, so there’s that.
Anyway, here’s the 411. I’ve always wanted to say that:
My toddler is 29 months old. She is fully potty trained (even at night!) and busy.
And she is still in her crib.
She’s climbed out twice, but I put the fear of God into her, plus she thinks alligators will eat her toes if she does it again.
Her room is the largest room upstairs because it’s a remodeled game room. We don’t have a guest room and I want to replace the crib with a full size bed.
Follow me, this is where it gets confusing.
My oldest child has been begging for the larger room with a big bed her entire life (dramatic emphasis, all hers). I promised when her baby sister moved to a big girl bed, I’d switch the rooms.
So, basically, the two year old gets the yellow and pink room with the white twin bed and the 9 year old gets the old toddler nursery.
Whew!
Got it?
More info: Bedroom furniture is expensive, but I’ve been piecing together some marvelous pieces (we’re going black shabby chic) and my garage is my current workspace.
I’ve just got this piece to paint black, the bed:
The dilemma: I’m unmotivated to finish said bed because I don’t know when to make the switch to a big bed and a new room. And I don’t know how to do it without disturbing my toddler’s sleeping/potty-trained cycle.
What do y’all think?
I’m afraid.
P.S. I’m linking this to The Inspired Room’s Procrastination Party because I need accountability.
And painters and movers.
Ahem.
*******************************
UPDATE
I finished the bed! And I’ve spent the last two days moving furniture around.
But I love the results!
Remember the before (my garage sale find):
And the after:
And tonight, my two year old will be sleeping in her big girl bed (in her sister’s old room).
I’d appreciate you sending happy {sleepy} thoughts her way!
P.S. I’ll be sharing more details of this room makeover in the next couple of weeks in my DIYP series!
Hi there!
Let me begin by saying 29 Months and totally potty trained!!
That is an accomplishment! My 25 month old is still at the
“Oh my! Look how fun it is to throw toilet paper in the toilet and flush repeatedly” stage!
She did sit on the potty today and pull her pants down. Yeah, after she threw nearly a half a roll of toilet paper in.
Okay, anyway as far as putting your little one in a big bed, I relate to your procrastination.
My other two girls were in big beds at 18 months. Maybe it’s age (mine, not hers) but I really want to wait! God knows what she’ll do if she’s let loose!
Best of luck.
I think I’ll put my little one in a big girl bed when she’s 15.
Just do it! Yeah, there might be some set backs, but you have to it eventually.
I feel your pain sister! We just moved our little guy into a big bed at 3yrs 3mo and it was a rough few weeks. This was the longest we had waited to make the switch (the others moved to a big bed at 2 yrs) and I think we waited too long. What can I say …he is my last baby! All I know is that he is alot more independent at this age and not as likely to stay in bed because mom said too. I say switch soon! Good luck!
1st off- LOVE LOVE the dresser you got for her. 2nd- I really think she is going to surprise you! look how well she handled the potty training- the room move will go just as well- better yet- leave for a weekend again & let hubs do it ;-D
also- you could get those bed rails to make her still “feel” like shes in the crib- and tell her those alligators bite in the new room too. :-0
Well, I clearly have nothing to offer in the not-disturbing-potty-training department, but Rose has been sleeping in a bed for a few months now. We started by letting her play in it, and pretended to tuck her favorite animals under the covers for “naps,” so it caught her fancy quite quickly. We had a few rough nights in terms of her trying to get out of the bed and wander around her room, but with consistency of discipline, she quickly learned to stay in there and sleep.
She LOVES her big girl bed…it’s her special little place now. You won’t be sorry after the transition is made!
I vote for just do it!
I think we underestimate our kids sometimes. I figured my son would have a hard time moving to a big bed at 25 months. We put up both the crib and the bed in his tiny room, planning on letting him choose. He chose the crib every time. Hubby got fed up and took down the crib, with never a protest from the son. I do remember having issues, however, keeping all of mine in bed after putting them in a big bed.
Can’t help with the moving of furniture or painting, plenty of that to do here!
I could help you with the painting. But I’m drawing a blank on when to pull the old switch-a-roo. My 16 mo. old daughter (WAY busy) feel out of her crib last month. But there was NO WAY I am moving her to a big bed yet.
I’ve blocked out all the potty training stuff with both of my boys. No help in that area!
YOu will laugh at the effort I went to…but here is what I did.
1. Dismantle crib.
2. Put matress on floor in corner of room.
3. Take two sides of crib and bolt them to the WALL (so they can’t fall on toddler)
4. baby gate at door of room.
No worry about falling out of bed, and they get the familiarity of same mattress and their crib rails on a few sides….
5. Let them sleep this way for a week. Then take a crib side away.
6. After a few more days take the next one (ask toddler to help)
7. Okay now after a week. Switch the toddler matress for the big girl mattress. STILL on the floor in corner.
8. Wait a while. Then add bed frame. And VOILA. Toddler is a big girl!!!!
That is awesome that she’s potty trained at night! I need to hear more about how you did that. My almost 5 year old still struggles to stay dry at night.
I took a class on children and sleep and we discussed when to do the big bed transition. The speaker of the class was a registered nurse and has worked at a pediatric sleep study facility for over 20 years. She said around age 30 months, children will understand that the direction to stay in their bed. She also recommended putting a mattress on the floor where the crib was in the room, so the surroundings would look the same.
I also love your furniture, both the white and black. Very nice!
Good luck!
Oh my poor girls – my oldest wants her own space desperately. It is still a ways down the road though!
Congrats on the potty training issue!
We moved our daughter to a big girl bed at 27 months. To our surprise, she did great!
Hi! I just found your blog through my sister in law (Happy Housewife) and I have to say….I love it! I alway love people who keep it real. I have a poetry blog where I write about the “real” things of my life. I would love for you to come visit! I’ll enjoy keeping up with you. Beki
I can’t give you much help in how*, because my son is 31 months old and still in his crib. I’M not ready to move him yet, because I’m not ready to deal with him getting out of bed constantly. I’m sure there’s some reason to not wait too long, but I’m ignoring that and just going to wait until he’s 18… Ha. (If only he could still fit then…)
You won’t know until you try!
It’d be fun for your older girl to pick the paint color and everything, too, and help you put her new room together.
As for the potty-training… I just now stopped using Pull-Ups at night with my almost-4-year-old. However she was sleeping in a twin bed at 19 months old, before she was potty-trained. So I’m not sure if doing it the opposite will affect her potty training!
I just linked to the procrastinator party too! I have sooo many things I need to do, at least this will make me accountable for one
First of all, YOU GO GIRL! Look at you with a fully potty trained 29 month old. Eesh.
Secondly, the first step is admitting you need help. HA! Here you are, the next step will be easy! Looks like some great advice in your comments. We let our son sleep in his crib mattress on the floor for awhile. It was the perfect transition. Oh, yeah, the glamorous life’s comment above is great. Baby steps to the big girl bed.
Sounds like your toddler will handle whatever you do very well!
And no more procrastinating on the furniture….might as well get things rolling now so when you are ready to move the new furniture in, it is DONE!
Can’t wait to see the progress! It will be AWESOME!
Thanks for joining in!
Well, I can totally relate to the whole changing of rooms process. My middle son has been sleeping in the same room with his big sister for four years now and it’s time to move him into the other bedroom with his little brother. Just last week I completed the painting process–walls AND furniture. We are still waiting on the bunkbeds to show up so all three kiddos are sleeping in the same room. My oldest daughter hasn’t slept in a room by herself in four years, and although she says she can’t wait to have her own room I know it’s going to be hard for her for a few nights. She’s used to having someone to talk to and tell stories with, and I am going to miss that for her, but it’s time for the boys to be boys and have their own space!
My advice for you is to just go for it and make the switch. There will always be adjustments with change, but everything in life is a phase and it will eventually go away and a new phase will come!
Good Luck!
My girl is 19 months and has been in a big girl bed for about a month now. MAKE THE SWITCH!!!
If you are worried she’s not old enough…. she is!!!
If you just don’t feel like putting yourself through a rough week or two… just do it! She might surprise you!
I say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
Good on ya for the potty training
Very cute idea…I love the black shabby chic look!
I must be a bad mommy because I just took the crib out of Toots’ room and put a bed in its place (with an inflatable bumper attached to one side and the other side pressed against the wall) and she was fine. She took to it straight away and even more so once we added an ikea bed tent. She pretends she sleeps in the cave:)
Do it now before she breaks an arm climbing out! My daughter thought it was the funniest thing to climb out of the crib. Get some of those side rails to make her feel more secure in the big girl bed.
Get the bed painted first then listen to all of these great suggestions on making the trasition!!
You CAN do it!! This will be fun encouraging each other finish these projects we keep putting off!
~TidyMom
Ask your little girl about it. Okay, let me calculate for a minute . . . 29 months = 2 years 5 months (sorry, I stopped counting months at 24 months) and she is well old enough to talk with you about things like beds. Buy yourself (or pull one out) a toddler bed rail and give it a test run. Let her help you make that decision!
I think it a much better idea to give the oldest the bigger room and bigger bed. Hopefully she will easly give it up when the guest come. I go my oldest a queen bead after her crib. For the same reason. Guest! I want my mom and dad to come a be comfortable.
I think your toddler will do just fine during the switch. Just do it!!
I have found if I have a positive attitude about something then the kids follow. Don’t let your anxiety rub off on them. Maybe have the older sister make a big deal about “giving” her room to the little one – a rite of potty passage.
We switched cold turkey from a crib to a twin bed (a tall one, because it’s a trundle) without a hitch at the same age. No probs at all, no getting out — we just talked it up and she went with us to the seriously overpriced baby furniture store to pick it out.
You may be surprised at how she adapts — I’d start there, and if you need to pull back to putting the mattress on the floor, etc, do it next. But definitely put a rail up or something to keep her from rolling out of bed (we used a pregnancy pillow and that worked great).
I think the room will be beautiful! When we had our fourth, my third- Annie was 2 and a few months. We moved her to a full size bed to make way for baby. She was potty trained and quite precocious. She did great. Have high expectations, and they will meet them. Put the fear of God into them. Honestly there is never a “perfect” time to do these things. Bite the bullet, you will be happy you did!
Hope you feel better soon!
tia
I never move my kids to a big bed until they are at least 3 years old. I don’t care about the potty training issue….for me it’s all about crime and punishment. I don’t want to move someone that isn’t onld enough to understand the cause and effect of getting out of bed and spankings.
I’ve found that a three year old understands that there will be NEGATIVE consequences if he/she gets out of bed….unless puking is involved. (Puking is the only acceptable excuse at our house for disrupting sleep.) It sounds mean but a three year old can understand threats….therefore you rarely have to resort to actual punishments for getting out of bed. I’m just not patient enough to fight it for a week. I give it two nights and then it’s bad news. I’d rather just wait until they’re older than get 10 nights of bad sleep in a row.
No kid sleep advice here, just wanted to write that I love, love, LOVE the yellow/white/pink/green room! I especially love the chandelier and the mobile. Gorgeous!
I can’t help you with motivation…I can’t get motivated to go to the grocery store this week. Sigh
But my thought was, and you may already be there, inlist the help of your big girl with the furniture. Let her take some ownership of her new big room. Like I said, you are probably already doing that.
As far as the crib…such a hard thing to do- take your baby from her baby bed. And they look so small in regular sized beds. But when we did it last, there was a great sense of purpose in ‘moving forward’. A new stage in life…new adventures for THAT family. You can do it!!! And as far as her getting out of bed…that is just a training issue. It will come with time. I’m sure it did with your others. Unless they are like mine and “need water” or “have to go potty”, or “need to get their purse ready for church Sunday”…ya, it’s Tues. night…I think there’s time for that later.
OR— if your schedule slows down a little after school lets out, just wait another month and then make the switch. Gives you time to finish furniture and gives your toddler a little more time on the road to nonreverting potty training.
your daughter’s room is so cute! i can’t wait to see the black furniture!!
Two words: Plastic sheets.
You could move the crib into the smaller room and concentrate on getting the big girl’s new room finished while the lil girl gets used to the new surroundings. Then switch the lil one to the twin bed with rails. I would kee both the twin and crib in there at first (if it fits) and make it inot a “big girl thing” and she will likely WANT to make the transition.
(No ecperience here yet, just ideas!!!)
-Vanessa
You know what, you just have to bite the bullet and do it!
And not just because I want to see pictures of the new room when it’s finished either, or maybe just because of that!
I say go ahead a do it- if you don’t it will be like procrastinating =)
Have a wonderful day-
I say go ahead a do it- if you don’t it will be like procrastinating =)
Have a wonderful day-
I have no idea on the timing, but I’d really like to have that black dresser/mirror.
We moved our son to Big Boy Bed at 26 months and he did great! My daughter we moved to Big Girl Bed at 33 months and she struggled! I think you have to gauge your child and what you think they can handle! (And what you can handle!)
Good luck – love, love, love the furniture!
My daughter was resistant to going into the big girl bed. But she slept well otherwise. So finally one night we got this brilliant idea to move her to the big girl bed IN HER SLEEP thinking she would just wake up there and be happy about it and all would be well and she would get over her issues.
That all sounds good, but what really happened was she woke up in the night screaming bloody murder and about gave us both a heart attack.
My son just said ‘ok’ and crawled in the big boy bed, no prob.
So dunno.. and good luck! : )
Can’t wait to see what how you do your furniture! My daughter has a headboard similar to that I want to redo it at some point.
Love the yellow & pink room! So gorgeous!!! I'm sure your toddler will be happy there! I would try transitioning to a big girl bed first and then move her.
I’d say just go for it! We moved our baby into a toddler bed at 32 months, she had already potty trained herself (really, it was piece of cake). It was a really easy transition. I bet she’ll surprise you-in a good way!
We had a big party for her big sister when we did the switch-we took her to her favorite restuarant and really celebrated! That seemed to help.
I’m not sure bed issues are ever totally solved. At least until your kids move out. When they get to high school and college age, it’s hard to get them to go to bed at a decent hour…and harder still to get them up. You’re in this for the long haul, my friend! lol
Love your furniture!
P.S. We did the same thing a few others commented on. A mattress on the floor worked great for the transition period.
We are all here for you…you have good ideas…get the furniture done and the rest will all fall into place!
this will be fun checking on each other to see where we are all at!
Good Luck!
Susie
Go for it! I’m guessing the only thing she’ll discover is that it’s alot easier to get out of bed when she wants to. So you may need to assure her that the alligators will indeed still eat her toes even though she’s in a new bed
My daughter was moved to a toddler bed at 22 months and fully potty trained around 27 months. We moved her into a “big girl” bed around 4 months after that. To my amazement, it NEVER interrupted the potty/sleep stuff. She has called for me a handful of times to help her to the bathroom during the night, but normally sleeps all night without having to potty…now if I could just do that! I say don’t make a big deal out of it and hope for the best!
I was going to make Vanessa’s suggestion. Switch rooms first, then move the youngest to the twin bed once she’s ready. Wouldn’t hurt to offer the twin bed as a place to sleep (even if it’s just for naps).
My oldest would get out of bed for the longest time, she’d fall asleep on the floor and once she was asleep, we just moved her back to her bed. She didn’t play or anything, just layed there. My youngest however, we moved earlier to a big girl bed (before she was 2), because she was always trying to get in her sister’s bed. She will not get out of her bed even to get a drink of water from the table on the other side of the room, even now that she’s 3. Although a few times I think she’s gotten out in her sleep.
My daughters are now 14 and 12…I was nervous when we moved each of them into a big bed, but both of them were moved at around 2 1/2 yrs old and both times were a breeze!
We made a big deal out of it…the whole family was there; we took pictures; jumped and rolled on the bed; put the sheets on together, etc.
Then we followed our regular nighttime routine!
Wishing you an easy time with it as well!
LOVE the bed and the colors! Awesome job!! You have been busy, busy!
Love the monogram on the bed…Looks great!
I taught my middle daughter (very agile and graceful as a tot) how to climb in and out of the crib to go to the bathroom. (!!! – don’t tell the authorities!)
Wonderful job!
Love, love, LOVE the monogram on the headboard!
And to think that I didn’t even know that there was a black shabby chic. I do have a black bookcase, though! It all looks marvelous and I know that your little girls must be loving their new spaces.
Ohh I love the monogram! Especially the white on black! Beautiful job!
The monogram makes it perfect!
Really pretty. I never would have put that red with that green on the wall, but the black & white pulls it all together. I love the monogram!
Awesome redo! I love the monogram
Love the monogram on the bed. My only suggestion for the younger..move the bed away from the window and get side rail…and our struggle was keeping them in their room…eventually I figured they would stay in the bed or get back into it to sleep…I never picked them up off the floor…their toys were in another bedroom..and I hung a big jingle bell on a piece of elastic and a pushpin at the top of the door…that way I could hear the bell at the other end of the house and tell him back in bed. Once they realize there is no way to get out of the room w/o me hearing them…they gave up. Our daughters have been a WHOLE ‘nother story.
Ok, that jingle bell idea that Susie Q had is brilliant!
I love the bed. Great monogram.
Shannon
the monogram is what really rocks the socks off that bed… great job!
Look how cute it turned out with that little monogram on it too!
You are awesome. Thanks for slaving away in spite of your sinus infection.
Good job, it is BEAUTIFUL!
blessings!
Aww, how cute! I love the letter M on there, so pretty.
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BIG congrats on the potty training! That's awesome, but I can see why you were hesitant to change things up. The rooms look wonderful! I started some changes in my toddlers room yesterday! Fun!