Mrs. Train’s toddler bed transition story made me decide that Chloe was sleeping in her crib until she was fifteen years old.  I even had Ben read the story to make sure we were on the same side.  Trust me; we were. Except two weeks after Mrs. Train posted her story about transitioning the boys into their beds, Chloe decided to jailbreak out of her very own crib.  We were in the middle of meeting with a contractor about replacing our patio door, and I cannot tell you the horror in our eyes when our 16 month old wobbled into our dining room.  She had a look of sheer excitement in her eyes and a huge smile on her face. Fortunately, the crib mattress had one lower setting so that settled that… until last week.

Last week, Little Miss Jailbreak decided that cribs were for suckers.  We’d been struggling with bedtime for the last three weeks, mostly due to teething issues. Chloe is getting her two year molars, and I get that they hurt. It’s making bedtime harder and harder for her and for us and she’s been resisting sleep and trying to climb out of her crib. But last week?  She piled her blankets in a corner, smooshed them together and used them as a sort of step stool to climb out of the crib.  High five for being creative, but goodbye blankets.

We figured if she was going to do everything possible to climb out of the crib, we may as well turn it into a toddler bed.  We spent the last few days talking up how awesome big girl beds are. We took her shopping and let her pick out her own Big Girl Pillow and last night, Ben took apart the crib and put up the guard rail.  He let Chloe help.  He thought if she was a part of the process, she’d think the toddler bed was really, really awesome.

Cleaning her big girl room and making a toddler bed.

In the words of Dwight K Shrute, “FALSE.”

When 8pm rolled around, we tried to tuck her into bed.  She needed a flash light (I have no idea where this came from).  Then she needed a drink.  And a snack.  Boy, this kid was pulling out all the stops!  At 9, she needed us to sit with her.  We figured this was a strange and possibly scary transition so we agreed to sit in her room with her until she fell asleep just this once.  Except she wanted Ben to lay *in* her bed, and well, that wasn’t going to happen.  Cue tantrum.

From 9:30 until nearly 10:00, the conversations went like this:
Papa: Chloe, lay in your big girl bed.
Chloe: MAMA!!
Papa: Chloe, you’re a big girl.  Big girls sleep in their big girl beds.
Chloe: I BIG!  *gets out of bed*
Me: Honey, it’s time for night night.  Can you get back in your bed?
Chloe: *gets toy off shelf*
Papa: Okay, it looks like I have to build the crib back together!
Chloe: IIIIII BIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGG *runs back to bed*

Somewhere in there she decided her room was a girls’ only zone, and made Ben leave.  And somewhere around 10:30, I told Chloe I had to go potty (which was partially true) and asked her if she could lay in her big girl bed by herself while I went potty.  She said yes, so I went to the bathroom… and stayed there for 45 minutes with the door open while I heard her fall asleep. Mom of the year award?

I tiptoed to my bedroom, heard her fuss somewhere around midnight, but she put herself back to sleep and didn’t wake up until 8am the next morning. After all that mess last night, it took her a good 15 minutes to figure out she could climb out of her new bed and come into our bedroom.
The following day, nap time was an absolute nightmare.  It took us three hours to get her to try to nap, and in the end she actually asked us to put her crib back together. After we put her crib back together, she fell right asleep.  We let her sleep in her crib the next few days and nights, and her sleep returned to normal.

A couple days later she asked for her big girl bed again.  I was nervous, but I put the bed back together for her.  I let her help me with pretend tools, and she was really excited about the process!  We read a story in her bed at nap time, tucked in her toes, and I went to work in my studio while she was supposed to be napping. Two and a half hours later, there were more tears and screaming. Feeling defeated, I put the crib back together for a second time.  It felt like our family was trying to set the world record for the most times a crib could be assembled and disassembled in the shortest amount of time!

It seems like Chloe isn’t quite ready to be transitioned into a toddler bed at 22 months, so we are going to give this another try in the future.

How old was your child when you transitioned them into a toddler bed?  Was it easier or harder than you expected?