Cool Beds. Gro Clocks. Video Monitors. Waiting....

For us, those were the "key" things for transitioning our 3 year old twins from cribs to toddler beds.

I often see messages on chat boards about how to transition children from cribs to beds so, I decided to throw this post together so I could add my .02 to the conversations from now on.  Because as you know, I ALWAYS have SOMETHING to say about EVERYTHING...LOL!

In all seriousness, I hope this might be helpful to parents in the beginning "thoughts" of the BIG transition from cribs to beds...

WAITING

Out of ALL those things, WAITING was probably the most important.  We didn't have monkeys.  Ave & Bryce loved their cribs and I am pretty sure they would have comfortably stayed in them for another 3 years and we would have had no concerns with that EXCEPT that we travel.  A Lot.  And playpens are no longer an option for sleeping arrangements for the kids when we are visiting others.  They, unfortunately, are too big for them now.  When other parents ask my opinion about moving their children to beds, the first thing I always say is keep them in a crib as long as possible.  It is a comfy, safe "cage" sleeping environment for them and if there is no immediate "need" to have them in beds, why rush it??  After all, they've got the rest of their lives to sleep in beds.  LOL!

Since our travelling plans this summer dictated our "need" to make the move, we started the transition from cribs to toddler beds almost 2 months ago and it has been one of the easiest transitions so far in their short little lives.  I think that is because we gave it some serious thought and planning before jumping into the unknown abyss of giving them free reign in their bedrooms.

BEDS

For our kids, that meant really COOL BEDS & PUMPING UP the big transition a few days before.

Bryce fell in love with his CAR BED instantly.  I know if I had one of these I wouldn't want to get out of bed either!

Ave loves Princesses and so we totally pumped up this "Princess Dollhouse" bed.  Her eyes could have lit up her dark room with the excitement she felt for her own princess bed...

Whatever bed you choose for your little one, I highly recommend keeping the crib up (if room permits) for TWO reasons.  #1- If the child struggles with the transition and prefers the crib, it is there for them to use.  Some kids might be apprehensive to move to a BIG bed and having the crib there may make them more comfortable.  #2- If the child decides not to follow the expectation of remaining in their new BIG KID bed, then the rule is that they need to sleep in their crib until they are ready to "follow the rules" (We kept ours set up more for this reason rather than the first.)  After the second week, we took the cribs down.

GRO-CLOCKS- This is a  MUST (in my opinion)!

These little things carry a big price tag ($50/each) but they carry an even bigger benefit.  You can set these things to "wake up" anytime you like.  We set ours for 7:00am.  There is a cool feature where you can set a time for naps and weekends but we've kept it simple...so far!

The kids say "Good Night" to the sun and they know that they can not get out of their bed or make excessive noise until the sun "wakes up" in the morning.  Works like a charm!  We took it one step further and made the rule that they can call out for mommy and daddy when the sun "wakes up" but they still can't leave their beds until we come in to get them officially up.  Again, works like a charm!

Here is Bryce ALERTING me to the fact that it is 7:00am and that THE SUN IS UP!!!  LMAO!

PLAYING BIG BROTHER- Video Monitors

I purchased video monitors shortly after the kids turned two in anticipation of the transition from cribs to beds.  I was not keen on the idea of having to run up and down our two storey home to put my little munchkins back into bed every couple minutes (as it turned out, that wasn't the case but I wasn't taking any chances).

The couple of times, make that exactly 2 times my son has got out of bed, I simply pressed a button on the video monitor and told him to get is butt asked him to please get back into bed.  Once he figured out I had "eyes" on him, no further escapes have been attempted...LOL!

In the next week or two, these video monitors will come in handy as we will begin our transition from pull-ups to underwear and the whole rule of "you must stay in your bed" will now become, "unless you have to use the washroom".  This one, I think, will be challenging but again I have no intentions of running up and down those darn stairs...I'll keep you all posted on how THAT goes!

Anywho, these are few points of interest for parents heading into that often dreaded transition from cribs to beds and I am hear to say that it doesn't have to be a challenge.  Just a little planning ahead & some clear expectations can help make it smooth for everyone!  

GOOD LUCK!