Big Boy Bed
We got Wyatt a big boy bed when he was two and a half. He wasn’t showing any signs of climbing out of his crib and he was perfectly comfortable in there, we hadn’t potty trained yet so he didn’t need to get out for any reason, but we needed his crib for baby Reese.
I spent a lot of time deciding on what kind of bed I wanted for his room. I decided to skip a toddler bed, we wouldn’t get that much time out of it so it seemed like a waste of money. Additionally, we needed the crib for baby #2 so I didn’t buy the conversion kit to make his crib into a toddler bed either. We don’t know if we’ll have the kids share a room eventually, so I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on the frame in case I needed to change the style of it. I specifically wanted a bed that I knew we’d be able to lower close to the ground so he could get in and out of it on his own starting from the time we made the transition, and so in case he did fall out, it wasn’t that far down. I finally landed on this bed, which has great reviews, is an absolute bargain, can be lowered super close to the ground, and we love it.
Making the Crib-to-Bed Transition
To prepare him for the transition from crib to bed, we talked about it, hyped it up, and read a bunch of books about getting a big kid bed. For big life transitions (new bed, potty training, new baby sister), I often look to books, something Wyatt loves, to get us thinking about topic. I always check the library first over buying because they have an excellent selection and we can read a bunch of different books on the topic.
I also left plenty of time (two months) before baby #2 came so he wouldn’t care that “his” crib was not his anymore.
I had Wyatt help me build the bed to get him really invested in it. Some parents let their children help them pick out the bed or bedding (or from a few narrowed down choices). I asked Wyatt what color duvet he wanted, because I knew he’d say blue and that was what I had gone with anyways, letting him have a little “ownership” over what his bed looked like might have helped get him on board. After all of that he was really excited to have a big boy bed. We did bedtime like normal that first night and he slept the whole night in his bed, we didn’t hear a peep! It was a very smooth transition for us, which isn’t to say that had anything to do with what we did, but Wyatt might have just been ready for it…or was afraid to get out!
Gear
We really didn’t need to have a solution to keep Wyatt in his room and from wandering the house at night because he didn’t ever even try to get out of his bed, but we did put these door knob covers on the inside door knob so he couldn’t open it just in case. Other solutions people try are reversing the door knob if there’s a lock on the inside, putting baby gate in front of the door, or installing a little hook on the outside of the door so it can’t be opened all the way.
We used these bed bumpers in place of traditional side railings because I like the cleaner look and ease of making the bed. I also was using a pregnancy pillow at the time and he called it my “donut” so he was excited to have his own “donut” too! They worked really well for us, he didn’t fall out once and then a few months later we took them out all together and haven’t had a problem since, definitely a smooth transition!
When Wyatt first transitioned to his big boy bed he wouldn’t get out of it without someone coming in to get him. So he would call for us. Once he figured out he could escape when he wanted, he started getting up super early in the morning. Since he was born he’s been using this sound machine and still does. But we needed something that would let him know when it was okay to get up so we got the Hatch Baby Rest nightlight because it has a “time-to-rise” feature where the light changes color when it’s okay to get out of bed. After a little work at the beginning, he actually really respects the light boundary and every morning at 7am when the light turns from red to blue he bounds out of bed and sprints into our room to declare, “the light turned blue!”
It’s totally customizable to what you need and you can set different programs for naps and bedtime, all controllable through the app. One strategy we found really effective to get him on board with following the light as a signal to stay in bed or it being okay to get out was for us to wake up a little earlier than what he had been waking up at (so 5:45 am at the time…daylight savings wasn’t helping us at that time of the year) and re-set the color very soon after we noticed (from the Nest, because we could see him) that he was awake. We also offered a small reward at the beginning if he stayed in bed till the light turned blue (like an M&M at breakfast.) So although he wasn’t sleeping in or staying in bed awake until 7am right away which was the eventual goal, we set him up to feel successful at following the light so he was excited and motivated to do it every morning. We then just started pushing the time back until eventually he wasn’t getting out of bed until 7am and was sleeping in longer. We have it set so the light doesn’t make any sound, just changes color so it doesn’t wake him, just if he wakes up, he knows if he can get out of bed or not by looking at the color. There are some days that he sleeps past the okay-to-wake color change, and he actually started requesting that we put the light on during naps so he knew when to get up, kids like boundaries! “If it’s red, say in bed!”
We have used this monitor since Wyatt was born and got a second one for Reese’s room. I like it because we can monitor from anywhere using our phones, we don’t need to carry around an actual monitor, and we can add people onto our account, like our parents, when they’re babysitting.
For a complete tour of Wyatt’s big boy room, click HERE!
What do you think?