Need help quick! Crib to toddler bed transition!

our DD1 started climbing out of her crib a few days ago, and even hurt herself slightly one time while doing it.

we decided as of today it was time to remove the side rail which converts it into a toddler bed. during the day, she loved it! she was able to hop into and out of bed at will. but once we tucked her in for the night, she kept getting out and walking out of her room... something she was never able to do before. now she's coming up with all sorts of excuses for leaving her room... needs more water, heard a noise, needs a diaper change... all of which are false claims.

we did get her a few books over the last few weeks about moving up to a "big girl bed", knowing this day would be imminent... she seemed receptive and enjoyed the books. and starting the day she first climbed out, we started getting her used to the idea that we were going to make her bed into a big girl bed.

what do we do? do we put the rail back on? help!! she's awake right now and we don't know what to do!

We switched Michael at 13 months for the same reason, and at first we actually had to put a gate up in the doorway to his room. He would go play in the kitchen, and he took chairs from the dining room and used them to get on the counter! After a few weeks of the gate he got the idea that he had to stay in his room, so we took it down. It took him a while to learn to stay in bed, but as long as he stayed in his room we were willing to give him time to learn to stay in bed.

No good advice, sorry! We've always been a part-time cosleeping family, and we coslept more right after the transition from crib to bed. We switched when Hayley was about 19-20 months old, right after we moved into this big 4 bedroom, two-story house, from a teeny little 2 bedroom, one-level house. I think she was so determined to explore! Within 2 months she had covered the walls in 2 rooms with her "artwork" when she was supposed to be napping.

I like the idea of a baby gate during naptime/bedtime in some respects, it teaches the child s/he needs to stay in his/her room during those times, and if not in bed sleeping, at least to relax and have some quiet time. Hayley also quit taking naps right around her 2nd birthday, but I tried (in vain) to still use naptime as a quiet time.

So I'm obviously no help, sorry!

I like the supernanny method, and used it with my 2 girls who've transitioned to beds so far.

First attempt at tuck in: books, songs, whatever you do for bedtime...tuck in, kiss and leave.

When she gets up: say, "it's night-night time, honey, you need to stay in bed" and carry her back to bed.

Every single subsequent repetition: no words, no eye contact, no engaging with any of the excuses. Pick her up, put her in bed, and walk away. Repeat as needed. It's worth it to suffer the first few nights, and she will get the picture. If you mean for her to stay in bed, and are consistent with this, she will.

After she understands that bedtime means bedtime and not pester mom with random request time, bedtime will become pleasant, almost the best time of day, and then you can say, "Goodnight honey, sleep good, I'll see you in the morning" and she will, and you will.

Since this is the carseat forum, I'll add this: if she was unbuckling her seat belt because she needed a diaper change, or a drink or another kiss, what would you do then? Staying in bed at night is just another safety issue.

We just moved from a crib to a "big boy bed" last week. We use a gate at bedtime(he doesn't nap). I have a monitor on, so I can hear him. I feel safer knowing that he's not going to wander out and get disoriented and fall down the steps. For the most part, it's working well(we did the same with my older son). I have had to go up and remind him that it's bedtime a few times, as he sometimes gets up and plays in his room, but he knows that he has to stay in his room and also knows that if he needs me I'll hear him. Good luck!

thanks so far, everyone!

i checked some other online resources and the overwhelming consensus is: baby gate! so tomorrow i'm going to try to find a used baby gate to fit in her doorway at night. abckidsmom, i like your supernanny idea as well... we may try that too.

but keep the ideas coming! :thumbsup:

The novelty of being able to get out will wear off eventually, it does take some time to get into the new routine- staying in bed. When my daughter did that, we told her as long as she stayed in bed, we'd keep her door open (hall light on) and that helped keep her in bed. I know other people have success with "you can come out 3 times, but after that, no more" My daughter actually never really got out of bed much, she just called me a million times, so I'd say "I'll come back in 2 more times, then that's it, and I'll have to close your door." Does that sound mean? I know, but I only had to close it once or twice for her to realize I meant what I said. She is not a night time wanderer, either, but we still have a gate in the hall so she could only come into our room, and not the bathroom or stairs.
Tops, give it a week to get into the groove! Good luck, southpaw!!!!

I think Supernanny's idea would work well with most kids. We're trying it for timeouts, too. Mark, especially, has a really hard time not trying to talk to and reason with Hayley while she's raging mad and in timeout. He doesn't get that in a way, it's rewarding her with attention for her bad behavior.

i agree...the novelty will wear off. my DS did the same your is doing. but each night it got better...and it didn't last for too long. those first couple nights were long though! a lot of coffee was needed those next days. however, i would also agree with super nanny. we got quiet too....and just put him back in bed. we stick with a very consistent routine...for naps...and bedtime ...so that helps as well. hope this helps!

We had tried the babygate, but this just made him want to try and climb it, and he was pretty successful. His bedroom was right at the top of a very steep flight of wooden stairs, and our bedroom was at the bottom - recipe for disaster in the middle of the night in the dark - I would just lay there sleepless listening. Finally someone told me to just put a hook and latch on his door - it seemed so wrong to me, but really when he was in his crib he was 'locked in' so to speak, so really what is the difference between that and locking him in his room - We used that instead of the baby gate, but really in order to get him to stay in his room and go to sleep in the evening we used what pp called the supernanny method (although I had never seen supernanny - it is just exactly what pp said) but the hood and eye latch meant at least I wasn't awake nights worrying he would fall down the stairs if he got up and I didn't hear.

abckidsmom said:

I like the supernanny method, and used it with my 2 girls who've transitioned to beds so far.

First attempt at tuck in: books, songs, whatever you do for bedtime...tuck in, kiss and leave.

When she gets up: say, "it's night-night time, honey, you need to stay in bed" and carry her back to bed.

Every single subsequent repetition: no words, no eye contact, no engaging with any of the excuses. Pick her up, put her in bed, and walk away. Repeat as needed. It's worth it to suffer the first few nights, and she will get the picture. If you mean for her to stay in bed, and are consistent with this, she will.

After she understands that bedtime means bedtime and not pester mom with random request time, bedtime will become pleasant, almost the best time of day, and then you can say, "Goodnight honey, sleep good, I'll see you in the morning" and she will, and you will.

Click to expand...

I did this too... but Supernanny wasn't known about just yet where we were. It just made sense to not engage in a wakeful discussion about bedtime.

FWIW, I didn't leave dd to fall asleep in her bedroom until after she turned 3. After she was 24 months old, she would just freak out if I left her, so I just remained in her room and read my book until she went to sleep. Very peaceful for both of us. After kisses & cuddles were over with, we didn't speak. If she started talking to me, I'd shush her by saying "No talking please", but she could babble to her dolls all she liked.

When she climbed out of bed, I'd put her back without talking. She stays there. This still works today even in full blown tantrum mode. The most I ever did was when she first began to escape. It was about 10 times. After that, only 2 or 3. But my dd LOVES her bedtime and rarely procrastinates with the usual "Can I". If she's not falling asleep within 5 minutes, there's always a reason, such as having tummy problems, diaper wet, or not feeling well.

Best thing for everyone, is find something consistent that is a calm & quiet reaction to your daughter's escape. Keep to it. The less talking & lights being turned on, the better.
good luck

I am going to be doing the supernanny thing too with the boys when they get older. And just like many other things it is going to be hard with 2. I never think this was a problem with my godsons. Well manuel just fell asleep but antonio would sometimes get up. But he liked to try to talk to his brother more than really get out of his bed. Good luck and like other people said as long as you keep at something and do not just let her play when she gets out of bed she will get bored with it. You could also reward her i think i read that you let her read books. i am not sure but if you give her 3 books at first and each time she gets up take one away till she has no more. Might now work if she does not care for books but i think for my boys it would really work they LOVE LOVE LOVE books.

All I can say is I feel your pain. And that it will take time and you'll need to figure out what works for your family.

My dd seemed to be showing signs of readiness to move from her crib into the toddler bed when she was about your dd's age. I was pregnant, and didn't want to deal with the transition when ds needed to move from his bassinett into the crib, so figured we'd take the opportunity to tackle it before I was sleep deprived from a newborn.

Yikes, the first night it was 3hrs of taking her back to bed before she finally stayed. It improved over the next few nights and at least when she woke in the night for the first bit she'd go right back to bed after a hug and kiss. That was short-lived though. So we bought door knob safety locks for the other room and the bathroom, and left the gate up at the top of the stairs, so her only choices were her room, the hall, or our room (so that we'd know she was up.) She figured out the door knob locks in less than 2 wks. We tried to find a gate, but her doorway was too narrow for the gates we have around here...

For awhile we ended up sitting in her room with her while she went to sleep. That was a hard habit to get out of and not one I'd recommend getting into... We did try the supernanny thing, but it was never really effective until fairly recently when she got mad and told us to "stop that" (stop the not talking and just taking her back to bed.) For us we ended up setting real firm limits that addressed each of the stalling tactics and removed them. Snacks before bed, once she's in her room she has crackers on her bedside table if she wakes, but she can't have anything else. She has a sippy cup on her bedside table for if she gets thirsty. Diaper changes we'd make sure were done right before bed and then we'd tell her her diaper was just changed and didn't need to be changed again... stories we set limits on - only 2 stories, now only 1 story. now it's time to go to sleep kind of thing...

Nights are still a work in progress here. We'll have 2 weeks of fantastic bedtimes and naptimes and her sleeping through the night. Then we'll go through a really rough period. Which just happens to be what we're in right now...

So I don't know if telling you what we've been through with my dd helps at all or not, but I do know that this is normal behavior and at this stage of the game, it's still all about your dd exploring her newfound freedom and hopefully it's short lived. You'll likely need to try a few different things before figuring out what works with your dd. My dd does better with plenty of warning and preparation, so knowing that she won't get any more food or that she only gets a certain number of stories and that her time is almost up really helps her. She's 33mos old now though, so I'm sure that does make a bit of a difference.

Best of luck and I hope you managed to get some sleep tonight. If nothing else, just remember "this too shall pass"

okay, an update on last night:

it went great! since we were caught off guard with this, and before you all posted your opinions, we ended up doing negative reinforcement... something we rarely do and don't like it , but it seemed our only option in the moment... we told her that she would have to stay in her bed, and if she got out again and left the room, we would put the crib rail back on... and that did it. she slept the whole night in her big girl bed (well, after the first few wanderings). this morning we gave her plenty of positive reinforcement. she's such a trooper!

i'm just worried now that the initial success won't last... as some of you have indicated... i'm going to try to pick up a spare gate just in case...