Adam and The Toddler Bed

From an article on Baby Center.com about transitioning your child to a toddler bed:

"There's no set time when you have to replace your child's crib with a regular or toddler bed, although most children make the switch sometime between ages 1 1/2 and 3 1/2. It's best to wait until your child is closer to 3, since many little ones just aren't ready to make the transition. [Oh, okay, so Adam has some time before that milestone. Whew.]

Of course, you'll need to move your toddler to a bed when he's simply too big [Oh... CHECK] or too active [Yikes . . . DOUBLE CHECK] to sleep in a crib anymore. And once he's potty-trained, he'll need to be able to get out of bed to use the toilet.

Many parents make the switch because they're worried that their active toddler might climb or jump out of his crib — and this is a real safety concern. [OH. Yeah, he does that big time...] But it's best not to react to climbing out of the crib or any other sudden sleep problem with a sense of alarm. [No alarm. He's just pretty good at it already.]

Don't rush right out and buy a new bed the day your toddler first climbs out of the crib. He may not be ready to move to a bed, and it may not be safe for him to be up and about during the night when everyone else is asleep. [That's a big concern... but if he wants out, he can climb out. So what's the point in making him leap 4 feet from the crib railing? He is a tiny athlete, so he hasn't hurt himself... but why push it?]

Buy yourself some time by lowering the crib mattress as far as possible [We had to do that about 9 months ago], so the side rails are relatively higher and more difficult to climb over [Climbing + Adam = Difficult? Never!]. Consider installing a crib tent. A crib tent is mesh and attaches to the crib rails with Velcro, to keep your little one safe and snug in his crib.[Oh, sure. Don't rush out and buy a $70 toddler bed that you will eventually need anyway; rush out and spend $70 dollars on a crib tent instead.]."
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Dear Baby Center,

Your article has only confused me.

Thanks Anyway,
Confused Parent of Active 16 Month Old
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It was not my first choice, but for lack of better options and obvious signs staring us in the face, we went ahead and converted Adam's crib into the toddler bed. He sleeps on a cot at school, he can climb out of his crib anyway if he wants to, and in some ways he's just as physically advanced as a two year old. And even if we had the money to spend on a crib tent (which we don't), it would have just annoyed the hell out of Adam for a few days before he mastered the art of Velcro unfastening.

How did we get here so quickly, you ask?

Last Friday night, Adam was put to bed at his normal time (8:30). Ten minutes later, he came strolling out of his room with his blanket dragging behind him. He stopped at the doorway to the family room, where we were finishing Finding Nemo, and glared at me. His eyes said, "I wasn't ready for bed yet."

Adam had scaled his crib for the first time. He had been throwing his legs over the side and trying to pull his torso up over it for about 3 weeks, but I would always catch him on the monitor and rush in there quickly. I knew that if he figured out he could do it even just once, we'd never get him to stop.

The last time as a "baby" bed for Adam.

And in his first attempt at jail break, he also somehow figured out how to open his bedroom door just a few minutes later. We let him watch the end of Finding Nemo, which I swear was just the principle of the thing... he laid calmly on the couch and drank his milk until the movie was over, and went to bed easily and slept through the night.

Watching Little Einsteins

We decided not to worry about his crib on Saturday and were going to try to push the inevitable toddler bed conversion milestone back a few more days, and optimistically, a week, but Sunday morning, bright and early at 6:30 am, Adam was standing at our bed, whimpering and desperate to get up in bed with us to watch Little Einsteins in our room. Monday morning was deja vu, except even earlier. And after being pulled sleepily into bed by me, Adam promptly asked for juice. Then Shannon came out of the bathroom dressed and ready for work, and Adam waved and said, "Bye, Dad!"

I literally saw Shannon melt.

So Monday night we converted his crib to a toddler bed. 

Night 1:

I spent 30 minutes stroking his head, rubbing his cheek, and rubbing his chest with my thumb to coax him to sleep. A few times I stopped and tried to get up because I thought he was close enough to sleep for me to leave, but he only sat straight up in bed, whimpered, grabbed my arm, put my hand to his head, then laid back down and closed his eyes. Oh, you want me to keep stroking your forehead? Real subtle, Adam.

In truth, I didn't mind and loved being able to cuddle with him for a little bit. He never wants to cuddle and while I don't want a 45 minute bedtime routine every night, I felt for him. Change is tough and we'll give him a chance to adjust at his own pace.

Shannon and I went to bed with the monitor volume turned up and expected to be awoken several times throughout the night... but we slept soundly until about 6 am when he woke up and tried to get out of his room and come see us. But he woke up completely not himself -- mad and upset and he couldn't stop crying. He didn't nap well at school on the cot either that day, so it's hard to tell whether it is all "new bed" related.

Tuesday night (Night 2), Shannon got to wrestle Adam to sleep. We read some books, he got some water, and Shannon tried to rock him and rub his back, and convince him to chill out, and 45 minutes later, Shannon emerged from his room wiped. But Adam was asleep, and slept until about 5:30am. When I heard him crying I quickly went in there, discovered a dirty diaper (which was "off-schedule" for him), and tried to get him to calm down as he screamed and sobbed uncontrollably.

However, I think that although he is definitely showing signs of an adjustment to the new bed situation, something else is going on too - maybe he's sick, maybe he's teething, maybe he's growing... on top of the shock of his bed looking and feeling different.

But I got him to calm down and go back to sleep, and he slept until about 7:20... then got out of bed and sat on the floor for about 5 minutes, then got back in bed and snoozed/chilled for another 15 minutes, and when he heard me get up he came running out of his room squealing and happy, and saying "night night, night night!!" So at least he woke up happy. I'm okay with baby steps as long as there is improvement.

Night Night.

Touchdown on my bed!

Did we move too fast?

Adam is well aware of the concept that if he wants to do something, he can do it. It's nearly impossible to convince Adam to do anything but what he already wants to do. And he's not bad or defiant, really... he's just extremely determined, courageous, and independent.

My bed is different!

It should be easier to get in and out, you say? We'll see about that...

Oh, yes, I see... piece of cake.

Yes, this is much safer.

This weekend he was bouncing on a patio chair to show off, and just as I ordered him to sit down (for the 6 millionth time in his life), he tumbled head first onto the concrete patio. He rarely falls from high places (he trips and falls constantly and gets up like it never phased him), but in the quarter of a second it took to fall, he stuck both arms out over his head and caught himself. He cried, because it was scary and because I swooped in (gasping) mid-fall, but he was smiling less than one minute later and had not one mark on him. Not a scratch. In fact he begged Robin to put him on the even higher patio chairs and whined at her to let him crawl between them.

He can take pen caps on and off easily, can do every shape in the shape ball, can work those little suction pieces that are stuck to walls (on the wall, off the wall, on the wall, off the wall), and can take those little syringes that you get with the bottle of Infant's Advil and slide the little white plastic piece into the clear plastic syringe piece. His manual dexterity, balance, memory, and physical strength are incredible. (And yes, I'm his mom, so I'm biased. But I'm not lying).

The cool kids ride their 4 wheelers backwards while chugging milk.

I have to remind myself of his age constantly, and this toddler bed adjustment experience is no different.

So were the last two nights a success? Yes. Absolutely. They exceeded my expectations. Were they tough? Yes.

I'm having as hard a time as Adam is with this crib to toddler bed adjustment. He is ready, despite his young age, but change is tough ... and we'll live through it. Besides, going to bed at 9 and getting up at 6 - 6:30? I know a lot of parents with kids his age who aren't even doing that -- and that's without a recent adjustment to a big kid bed.