BUT! I do need some advice!
I mentioned a while back that Joe has climbed out of his crib. The stress-out meter has gone up a few notches since then. Thank goodness we have a video baby monitor to see when he is about to make a flying leap out of there. But that means we can't go more than 10 feet from his room and there's a lot of us making mad dashes in there because he just won't settle down to sleep anymore and wants out. In fact we now have to lay in our bed with him while he drifts off to sleep and wait until he's in a deep sleep before we can put him back in the crib. He always wakes up at 3:00 a.m. so we usually bring him into bed with us which is NOT comfortable!
So with the adjustment of a new apartment and a new, separate-from-mom-and-dad bedroom for him, we thought we'd start the transition into a toddler bed. And that's where I need help.
My first thought was to get him a wooden toddler bed like this one.
I've read reviews on it and they all say they can hold a lot of weight, and I have a feeling that we will be laying with Joe a lot. Here is one of the reviews I read that made me laugh:"In order to get our daughter out of our bed before the new baby came, we bought her this bed, but she would only sleep in it if Daddy got in it with her. The bed held my then 2 year old, and my 6'1, 245 Lbs. husband for an entire night! This bed certaily held up to more than my expectation. Although my daughter crawled herself out of the bed and back into ours...It held my husband for the rest of the night."
Plus, this is gender neutral so it can be used for all of our kids. That would save us time and money in the long run.
But... I just can't resist buying Joe something like this:
There is also a Cars version as well. These look like so much fun! They are all boy which I just LOVE! And part of me really thinks that Joe might be more apt to stay in bed if it's characters he loves. I could just be kidding myself. However, I don't think these plastic and steel beds are quite as sturdy as a wooden toddler bed.Which kind of bed should we choose?
Now on to what I'm really concerned with: roaming.
I really don't think Joe will lay in his bed and drift off to sleep. I think we will have to lay with him for awhile. But since his room is apart from ours it makes me nervous. We will have a baby gate on his door and child proof the heck out of the place, but I'm just nervous that he'll find a way to break his neck. And should I let him roam around and play or should we constantly get up and put him back to bed if he gets up? That's the biggest question I have.
I'm just confused about this whole raising a toddler thing. I know it will be a big adjustment for him and for us, but I'm doing it for his safety's sake. I'd rather have sleepless nights than him possibly breaking his neck for real.
Any tips, ideas, suggestions would be greatly appreciated! It's stressful enough with moving... starting the toddler bed is just adding to it, but I think it's best to just get it all done with in one big sweep! Thank you!!!
8 comments:
Chase has that wooden one :) Not trying to freak you out but we did have a little epsidoe with it he actually got his arm stuck in the side rail area an flipped overtop the bed with his face down in the bedding. It was scary!! We heard him screaming but it sounded muffled and came to find him like that, he was stuck pretty good, however keep in mind he likes to cuddle the bars- it's never happened again :) Also you have a video monitor, and I LOVE THIS BED because 1. we can sit with him and read (it's very durable) 2. cute/gender neutral 3. you can always get those mesh side rails if your nervous about him getting stuck- highly unlikely like I said, but my kid's a wild sleeper. Also we thought about the plastic ones with a theme too, but it's just not my style I like to sit with him still and this bed holds my big ole husband too! GOOD LUCK!
Have you considered going the montessori route and just putting a mattress on the floor? Like this http://sewliberated.typepad.com/sew_liberated/2009/04/finnians-montessori-room.html
Really hard for him to hurt himself if he falls out this way =D
We went the mostly gender neutral manner: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S39858939/#/S59851606 , child-proof the room the best we could and put a gate at her door.
Consistency is the key! Its rough and a heck of alot easier to just let them sleep with you when its 3am! This has nothing to do with the bed but when we lived in an apartment when our son was baby/toddler we asked to put another lick on the doors (like the hotel flip over type) at the top of the doors where little fingers couldn't unlatch & leave the apartment.
If you think the cute characters would help him stay put, maybe you could get him "Cars" sheets or a comforter. Easily changed for future kids who go nuts over Thomas or Pooh instead.
Well, here's what we did...we went on craigslist and got the cheapest toddler bed available and ended up with one like the wooden one you show for $20. :) But I really like the Cars or Toy Story ones....but those all cost a bit more on craigslist.
Anyway! I ended up selling the toddler bed in a garage sale for $20! :) Dominic now has a twin "bottom bunk" bed, with no upper bunk anymore. we are planning to get the boys bunk beds in a few months and Vincent will still be in the crib for awhile I think.
Good luck!
We never did the toddler bed for any of our kids. They went from the crib to a regular twin bed. I didn't see the need for an added purchase. Yes, the toddlers look small in the big twin bed, but sooner than you think they grow to fill it! We just put one side of the bed against the wall, and the other side had a bedrail. As long as their bedroom is baby-safe (especially make sure you mount any bureaus to the wall) they should be fine. We would just tell them to stay in bed and close the door, and they were too little to open it on their own. They would call us from their bed in the morning as if they were still in a crib. It was awesome! Not until my kids were fully potty trained and needed to use the potty at night did they even think about getting out of bed :) It does help putting a toddler in a room with a sibling who already knows the drill, so Joe will probably be your hardest transition. But I can't say this enough - that it was MUCH easier than we thought, and I've heard the same from lots of other parents who took their babies out of the crib just before 2 years old. Good luck!
We didn't do a toddler bed with Jack when he was 2 (he never climbed out of his crib), just went straight to a twin bed (technically bunk beds with him on the bottom). I didn't want to spend money on a toddler bed and another crib mattress that I may not *always* have a kid in until we sell it. I figure a twin bed can fit everyone from a small child to an adult guest. And yes, we have had to (and still often) have to lay with him to get to sleep.
I've heard about the mattress on the floor concept which is even cheaper & less distance to fall, but we just went with the bunk beds, put a body pillow on on the floor next to him (it just gets pushed under the bed during the day). He's only fallen out a few times. Yes, we could've gotten a guardrail for the twin bed, but I was afraid he would get used to that and never learn to sleep in the middle of his bed. Plus my little sister used to try to climb over the guardrail instead of moving to the opening to get out of bed... only made the falling happen from a higher distance if it did happen.
As far as letting him wander his room... as long as it's baby proofed (and you're not using it for other storage that might be unsafe) I say let him play! In fact, we made a rule for Jack now that he needs to stay in his room at bedtime but he's allowed to "read" if he's not sleepy. We put books and non-sound making few toys in Jack's room and he'll entertain himself a bit before waking us up... ah-maz-ing!
You never know how he's going to handle it or what will work best for him until you get started!
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