No Longer in a Crib

It has been just over two months since we had our second child, our daughter Grace.  As I discussed once before, we want our daughters to share a room. Ideally, I think they should share a room until Ginny is 12 or 13. That is quite a few years down the road. Until then, we need to get them ready to share the same space.

Currently, Grace is sleeping in our room, right next to my side of the bed.  I like this set up because I am breastfeeding her. It makes it easy to grab her and feed her in the middle of the night. No midnight runs across the house.  My plan is to continue to do this until she is around 6 months old, when I hope she will be close to sleeping through the night. We'll see.

Ginny is still in the nursery. Instead of buying a second crib, we thought it would make more sense (and save some money) to get a toddler bed instead. Our logic has been that most toddlers transition to a toddler bed (or twin) when they are two years old. Fitting for Ginny because that will be her age when Grace joins her in her room.

The toddler bed arrived at our home about a week after Grace was born.  My husband and my dad (well, he "supervised") put the bed together and in the nursery. Ginny was curious about this new bed. Right away she wanted to climb on it and "read" her books.  This development brought me great hope that transitioning to the bed would go well.

My plan was simply to ease her into the idea, first at nap time then, when she was ready, bed time.  A week later, I made my first attempt to have Ginny sleep in the bed. It did not go well. Ginny climbed in the bed, but didn't want to lay down. I got her to lay down, but then she started to sob. I tried to talk to her about it, but it was a no go. She refused.  So, in she went to her crib.  We tried a few more times over the next couple of weeks, but she wasn't interested.  Finally, one day, she let us leave her there.  I was excited. The excitement was short-lived. Within 15 minutes I heard her banging the drawers on her dresser and bureau. I put her back in the crib after I discovered she had emptied out all of her PJs.

It took another couple of weeks before we tried the toddler bed again. I needed to wait for Chris to child-proof her dresser and bureau. His work schedule can be insane at times, and it took a while before he had a chance to get in there. Until he did, every time we went in the nursery, Ginny was thrilled to grab some books and climb on her new bed.

Ginny got her next chance to take a nap on her toddler bed about a week before Christmas.  I figured it would take a while, and that I would likely need to put her back in the crib.  I was wrong! In under five minutes, there was silence in her room. Absolute silence. I checked in there 10 minutes later.  She was asleep.

Ginny sleeps for the first time in her bed.

The next couple of days she fell asleep in her bed with no issue. Then, after discussing it with my DH, it was decided that Ginny should try and sleep in her bed at night. She was eager to get in her bed. There were no complaints from her. She has been sleeping in her bed ever since. 

Ginny's typical position, stuffed animals and books in bed and her butt up in the air. :)

I didn't expect the transition to move so quickly, but it did. I am grateful it went so easily. I only hope that potty training goes just as easy. My hopes are not that high.