Easy maybe too easy???

We have recently transitioned the kids from their cribs to their toddler beds. They have done absolutely amazing with the change! We ordered the beds a few months ago but one was damaged in shipping. Rather than send the entire bed back we called the company and had the damaged piece ordered to ship to us. However the piece was back ordered and would not be able to be shipped to us until the last day of April. Obviously this certain piece was being broken during shipping due to insufficient packing prior to shipping. I was not happy but did not really have any other choice than to shut up and wait for the piece to arrive.

We decided to go ahead and switch Ethan to the undamaged toddler bed and have Paige remain in her crib until the replacement piece arrived. Ethan was the one climbing out of his crib. He tends to go to sleep much quicker than Paige. He is also the lesser of the wild sleepers out of the two of them. We put his big boy bed together and he started sleeping in it immediately. This was about a month and a half ago and he has done fabulous!

Ethan has not once gotten out of his bed and/or left his room! He got out of his bed the third day during nap but he grabbed his blanket in the chair and directly ran back to bed. I have only found him asleep in the floor one time. He has done excellent with getting used to sleeping with covers, sleeping on only one end of the bed and essentially the entire transition.

He did start having separation anxiety in the last three weeks when we leave the room at bedtime but he is slowly getting better. I have to say good night then step back and wait a few minutes. Then I step back further by the door and wait for a few more minutes. Finally I open the door and stand there a little while. He raises his head a few times every time you move further back but this has seemed to work very well. He doesn't get up and by the time you make it out of the door and shut it he is fine. He does not even get out of bed in the morning or after nap until I come get him. He just sits or lays in bed and plays. Amazing!

We finally received Paige's replacement piece for her toddler bed a few weeks ago. Dallas quickly put her bed together and we moved her to the bed that Monday. I was a little more worried about Paige's transition simply because she stays awake playing in bed for over an hour almost every night. She is such a wild sleeper and was always all over the crib throughout the night. She always kicks out of any blanket I put on her and won't stay on a pillow for more than a few hours.

We started Paige on a Monday night because I did not want to wait an entire week just to start on a Friday. I figured if it blew up in my face I could just put her back in the crib until the weekend. There was no need she did wonderful! She has not gotten out of her bed one time! She still stays awake over an hour every night before she falls asleep but she plays on her bed.

The last week she has gotten better about staying on the bed while asleep too. The first four days I found her on the floor sleeping twice each night. I have Ethan's big blue body pillow next to her bed so if she does fall out of the bed it is a soft landing. She actually does not 'fall' out of bed she inches out of bed. I watched her one night on the monitor. She slowly worms her way down the bed then after a few flops from one side to the other side she has at least a leg off the bed. She then proceeds to get another leg off the bed and eventually she is on her knees on the body pillow with her top half still on the bed. Every time I have found her on the floor she is curled up in the corner of the bed, the pillow and the wall. It is so cute. I have to resist grabbing my camera in the middle of the night.

She also has not gotten up from bed until I come to get her. I left her bedroom door open this morning waiting for her to wake up and I thought I heard her. I walk in her room and she is sitting up in bed playing. Even with her bedroom door wide open she still sat there until I came and got her. Just crazy!

I have to say I love and hate several things about the new toddler beds. I love that I can sit on the floor and pat them or sing to them. I don't have to lean over that damn rail and squirm in pain from my lower back. I can lay on the floor next to them and still see them easily. I can even lay in bed with them somewhat if I want to. It is much easier to get to them in the middle of the night for medicine or to check a temperature. I also don't have to pick them up anymore. They can get in and out of bed alone. My back is so happy! It is also so much easier to change the sheets in the open toddler bed than in the crib. My favorite thing about the bed is the way the kids react. They are so proud and thrilled to be big kids sleeping in their big beds!

The biggest complaint I have with the toddler beds currently is the cover situation. Both of the kids were used to wearing footy pjs to bed almost every night. They had a hard time staying in blankets so we used swaddle blankets until they out grew them. We used sleep sacks after that until they outgrew those. The finally step of guaranteed warm sleeping was footy pjs. I am trying my best to get them used to sleeping in sheets and a comforter now. I can't put them in heavy pjs because combined with covers they would burn up. However they don't really stay under the covers all night so when they kick out in light pjs then they wake up freezing. Geez! I now have Ethan pretty much trained to stay in his covers and can dress him in light pjs. Paige is still having some trouble with this but she is getting better. I absolutely despise getting up all hours of the night to tuck them back in. I wake up even when they are not making any noise to check and see if they are covered up or not. Dallas swears that they are kicking out of the covers because they are hot but I disagree. When I check them their little legs are ice cold and they are in a little ball shivering. I am now trying to really 'tuck' the covers in on both sides very well so they won't come lose. This has seemed to work a little bit but the rest is just going to have to be learned.

I almost feel guilty that our experience with the toddler beds has been so easy. We never had a problem dropping the bottle, moving to the sippy cup or even quitting a pacifier. They never would take a pacifier. We have had some incredibly easy transitions with some major hurdles for young children. Everyone I know told me not to rush into getting them toddler beds because then they were free and life would be completely different. It hasn't been at all. I think it helps that our kids are so very routine and scheduled. They have always known exactly when bedtime is and what is expected of them. They like their sleep and apparently their new beds too!

I will add some pictures of their new beds asap!