Making Progress: Toddler Bed Transition, the First Week

It was a rough week with Little Guy transitioning to a toddler bed. I didn't have any expectations of how it would work since it was so impromptu on transitioning him! I do wish I had more time to research things prior to the switch though. Although I've fostered a variety of ages and children, I've never gone through the "toddler bed transition" or the "potty training" portion of parenting! Potty training will be its own adventure for sure.

I'm glad I transitioned him when I did because now he's climbing on everything and anything! Need to keep an eye on him, he's sneaky. I know when I can't hear him, he's up to something.

Here's how it went down:

2nd Night: The second night was more challenging! It took 2 hours of going in and out of Little Guy's room. He woke up in the middle of the night and came into my room, I put him back when he fell asleep. My bad, I wasn't consistent - I was tired! I actually thought it was close to wake-up time, thought it was 4am, but it was actually closer to 1am! 

Time: 2 hours 

Up-At-Night: 1x  

3rd Night: Decided to use a few different techniques. When it was bedtime, I turned on his little lamp (very soft glow) and used the door monkey lock for the door, so he couldn't just open it and wonder out.  He would keep screaming "the light! the light!" and "ni-ni! ni-ni!." Then he cleaned up his toys! I thought that was cute. We normally sing the clean up song before bedtime, but I left the toys out, so he could play with them if he wanted to. I had to go into his room a few times to help calm him down. He finally went to his bed after an hour, and went to sleep. He was up 4 times during the night, but shorter periods of time and I didn't have to go in his room at all because he went back to bed by himself.

Time: 1 hour

Up-At-Night: 4x's 

4th Night: Used same technique as the night before. Added it to our nightly routine: bath time, put PJ's on, brush teeth, story time, lights off. NEW and do together: Close door, close blinds, turn on lamp. Then: sing song, hugs/kisses, ni-ni.

Afterwards, I left the room. Little Guy started screaming again, BUT he stopped screaming after 5 minutes! 5 minutes! Yay! After the 5 minutes, he went to bed, talked to himself for 30 minutes and fell asleep! In his crib, he used to do that. I didn't have to go back in once. Then, he woke up at 4:30am and brought toys in bed with him and played. This is really good progress! Hopefully this will be the turning point to be fully transitioned!

Time: 5 minutes!!! WOOHOO! 

Up-At-Night: ZERO 

5th Night: Little Guy only fussed for a minute before grabbing his toy car and bringing it to his bed. He played with his toy car for 30 minutes and fell asleep hugging it. He loves his cars :) 

Time: 1 minute 

Up-At-Night:  ZERO

6th Night: Now we're onto the weekend and trying to nap-time is tough! He ended up sleeping really well in the afternoon, which was nice. But took him a long time to get settled.

That night, there was a little regression, had to go back in 1x before he settled down. But I guess it's not always going to be perfect every night. He played for awhile. His truck is now a permanent fixture in his bed! He's been practicing talking and making 2-letter sentences when he's in bed: "The light." "Dog barking."

Time: 20 minutes 

Up-At-Night: ZERO

7th Night: Nap time was a struggle again today. He was tired, but just kept trying to get into things. With his new climbing skills, it's not fun! Luckily there's not much for him to climb in his room, but there's still the danger of the dresser! 

At night, things were "back on track" with him going to sleep. Probably because he had such a short nap! He only complained for a minute, then played with his toys for 30 - then went to sleep. It'll be nice when I can leave the room without him screaming for me :(  I know he's not really "screaming" he's just trying to get me to come back in the room -- but still, I'm tempted to go back in every single time! I haven't though, which is good. It's just hard. 

Time: 1 minute. 

Up-At-Night: ZERO! 

Overall, I would say the transition is still a work-in-progress! He's done extremely well adjusting, but it's going to take more time for him to feel secure in the toddler bed. I bought him a toddler pillow and some "cars" sheets. I'm going to introduce them to him next week and hope that makes going to bed more fun for him.

Next Steps: I think it'll be good when he doesn't feel he needs to whine/scream when I leave the room. That's going to be the next milestone! I don't mind him talking and playing with his toys - he did that previously in his crib. I think I might try to find him a plush car though. He has this hard lego truck he's keeping in his bed, he cuddles with it sometimes!

Also, since he has all this freedom - he's been waking up REALLY early, getting less sleep. I'm hoping that he is able to get back to sleeping his normal 11-12 hours at night. Right now he's doing 10 hours, which is good for his age! But he does better with 11-12 hours sleep / night. Plus, he's waking up so early - I don't have time to get up myself and get ready!!! I'm normally up and ready before he gets up. But with him waking up at 4:30/5am, that makes it a little more difficult. I've been trying to be "quiet" when I'm up so he doesn't hear me! The joys of Toddler-hood.

I have to say though, that I'm really enjoying this age! He's so much fun and his little personality is so precious :)