I need to go study so I won’t get a C on my two tests tomorrow…but before I do that…I just had to share what my crazy girl did. I’m laughing at how silly she is, so that I won’t break down in tears.
See, for the past 2 and half weeks we have been trying, unsuccessfully, to switch her to the big girl bed. We decided to make the move, even though she is just 18 months old, because she was extremely close to climbing out and we feared breakage of the neck. The first night it took 2 hours to get her to sleep, but she did it and slept through the entire night. The next day, she took a nap in her new bed. I was hopeful, frustrated but hopeful.
Since then, she’s slept in her bed only a handful of times. The second night she sobbed and sobbed so I bought back out the pack-n-play crib to ease her fears. This process by far has been the most frustrating and hardest thing I’ve had to deal with as a parent. Some nights she screams bloody murder about going to bed, some nights she falls asleep without any problems, some nights she just plays and plays and plays until we just have to put her in the crib so we can go to bed ourselves.
We have seen improvement in that she knows now to stay in bed when we say to, but it’s still a battle pretty much every single time. She chooses to sleep in her bed, but when she doesn’t listen and tries to get up, she’s warned that she will go into her crib. Sometimes it works, mostly it doesn’t, and she just ends up in her pack-n-play crib because that’s pretty much the only place she’ll readily go to sleep now. It takes anywhere from 45-2 hours to get her to sleep now and it’s wearing us thin.
We’ve tried everything. The girl is just the most hard headed thing (really, I don’t know where she gets it). If we try to discipline her with “popping” her bottom or hand she just laughs at us and does it again. Oh, we are doomed as we head into the terrible twos. Nothing works with her.
Our Dr. recommend just leaving her in her room (baby proofed) with a gate so she cannot get out. He said she may play, but eventually she should go to sleep. Sounds good, right? Logically, that’s the only thing that worked when we were training her to sleep in her crib throughout the night as well. But, I don’t know if this will work. Today, after an hour of her playing alone I came into this:
What am I going to do with her?! And seriously, please, please give me some advice on how to get her to sleep. Once she lets herself fall asleep, she’s great and sleeps through the night. She just won’t let herself get to that point most nights unless she’s in her crib. She’s too distracted by her cool shutter doors, or her baby doll.
Perhaps that’s the answer right there. Take away all the fun stuff like toys and stuffed animals (and hide the dirty clothes….) so it’s less enticing to play. I want her to be bored and go to bed. It could work. Maybe?
HELP! How did you make the switch? How long did it take?
10 Comments so far
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Mwhahahahaha Savannah sounds so much like Madeline it’s hilarious. Except Madeline would have everything, including her clothes and diaper in the crib.
Claire went back and forth from toddler bed to crib until she was about 26 months old. One day she just decided she wanted to sleep in the big bed — which was her twin, not even her toddler bed. We just let her move back and forth and didn’t push it. So, I’m not really a whole lot of help. :)
By anne on 09.17.08 1:01 pm | Permalink
Another comment that will not be of any help, but maybe some encouragment that you are not alone…
My son never would sleep in his CRIB! We have been co-sleeping, which really takes the fun out of being a newly wed, and I suspect this will continue until he just decides one day to sleep alone. I know many people may tell you to try the cry-it-out method, but I could not stand listening to my little stubborn child scream for hours on end.
Good luck, and I will be reading all the comments for any suggestions myself.
By Meredith on 09.17.08 1:53 pm | Permalink
I’m not a lot of help either, really. My daughter is 2 1/2 and still in her crib. We tried the switch and we had similar issues a few months back, so I just summed it up to her not being ready. I have heard from other mommy friends of mine that eventually they will get it and stay in bed. I would suggest letting her pick which she sleeps in for awhile then maybe wean her from the pack n play. Warn her ahead of time that there will only be “X” amount of days until she’ll have to sleep only in her big girl bed? Also, you could let her pick out her blankets and such for her bed, so she feels like it is more “hers”? I did that with Gabby and she loved it.
By Dusty on 09.17.08 2:16 pm | Permalink
I am no help but I kind of feel your pain… Trevor (at 5 months) is totally convinced that he does not need to nap nor does he need to sleep more then 8 hours. Not only that, but he refuses to sleep anywhere but in our bed… it is not amusing and it is getting on my last nerve!!! I hope you can figure something out that works for all of you!!
By Rachel on 09.18.08 7:16 am | Permalink
I am SO sorry that you are having all this trouble! It really sounds like she isn’t ready. Her crib is her safe place and until she is ready to give it up or until you HAVE to have the crib, I wouldn’t push it. If she starts climbing out, then revisit it. Chances are that if she climbs out, she will do it carefully and not fall or fall one time and not try it again for a while. Try it again in 6 months. Good luck!!
By Cyndi on 09.18.08 6:52 pm | Permalink
It isn’t any fun but you could try what I did with my two boys (more then a decade ago.) I put them in their bed and then sat in a chair in the doorway so I could constantly remind them to get back into bed. I did it for 5 nights with the oldest and 3 nights with the youngest before they got it and stopped getting up. Good luck!
By Christine on 09.19.08 12:16 pm | Permalink
All of my children went to a bed at 18 months.
I did similar to commenter number 6.
My son took the longest. With him I started by sitting beside the bed and holding his hand. Then I moved my chair to the middle of the room, next the door way, finally out of sight.
We had a set bedtime routine that rarely wavered, and we played very soft lullabies.
My sister’s son climbs in and out of his crib all the time. No injuries yet.
Take care and good luck!
By Jendi on 09.19.08 4:59 pm | Permalink
Just wanted to say that I’m right there with you… my trio is just over 2 years old and we’ve recently made the switch because one of the three was climbing out of her crib. Bedtime has become pure bedlam around here. I finally removed everything from their room except the beds, blankets, and one or two lovies each. Now that they have less to play with and destroy they are going to sleep faster, but tonight was the first night that I’d say it has gone smoothly and it’s been just over a week. So, all that to say you might try removing everything from her room… at least she won’t still have someone in there keeping her awake like my guys have!?!
By MaryBeth on 09.19.08 10:54 pm | Permalink
When my son was a little older than that he started climbing out of his crib and when we tried switching his crib into a toddler bed he took advantage of his new freedom by roaming the house at night and refusing to fall asleep till he was so tired that he passed out. We tried everything and still the same thing, he’d wake up before us and get into something if he slept in his bed. Frustrated I went and bought a crib tent and put his bed back into a crib, what a life saver! 6 months later he was ready for the toddler bed after he matured a little.
By Angel on 09.20.08 2:33 am | Permalink
This is my first visit to your blog, but I thought I’d share what we did with my son. We transitioned him at about the same time. At night, we would read books in bed with him (we stopped doing that once he was a little bit older). We also left on a light in the room- a little frog lamp. For naptime, I just kept going back in and putting him in his bed until he learned that he had to stay there. It took a while, though. Oh, and we always kept a baby gate in his bedroom doorway- just in case he escaped :)
By Michelle M. on 10.06.08 2:55 pm | Permalink
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