Toddler Bed Troubles

A.,

Yup, I've been there. We had a similar thing. We tried putting our daughter in a toddler bed a year ago when she was 17 months old. Naps were great, bedtime was diminishing and with them our sanity. So we put her back in the crib for another year & just switched her to a toddler bed last week. She is 29 months now. It has been dreamy. Sure there are about 2-3 naps a week where she is playing in her room instead of resting, but developmentally she has been much more able to handle the transition. She loves her toddler bed & feels like such a big girl. I know a lot of people do the transition early on, but there is a lot of benefit to waiting until they are older. If you don't want to switch her back maybe getting to bed a bit earlier would be helpful. Sometimes going to bed late can be overstimulating for them because they are already past tired. Is she getting the 14 hours (naps included) she needs at this age? Maybe an earlier nighttime routine would help her not fight the sleep. But, then again, the freedom of a toddler bed is tough to compete with. Hope that helps.
If I may, I'd like to recommend my favourite sleep book out there. "Good night, sleep tight: The sleep lady's gentle guide to helping your child go to sleep, stay asleep & wake up happy" by Kim West. She is amazing & takes you through from birth to five. She was the one that said the longer you put them in the crib, the easier the transition. If you need more, there is lots more in there. It has been our one go to book on the shelf after trying out about half a dozen others.
Best of luck.
K.

Kind of simple, but have you tried stickers? I'm a teacher, and yet a fellow teacher had to remind me to try this! I just did a home made chart - quickly found that of course the placement on the chart didn't really mean anything to her, just the choosing and sticking of the sticker. Doing it for potty poops now.

I would probably have to say to keep her in the crib a little longer. If you really don't want to do this, or can't for some reason, I would try giving her something special to sleep with. If she keeps getting out of bed, it gets taken away. I know with my toddler it really helps to let him choose certain things. Like I'll hold up two different blankets, and let him choose which one. I'll let him choose which end of the bed he wants his pillow, and which stuffed animal he wants to sleep with. This doesn't always help, and mostly it's just sticking with it, and getting past that first big hump. Hope this helps.

I have been dealing with exactly that issue for the last month now! We did have a LOT going on as well, out of town trips, sickness, etc... We did not have the option of keeping her in her crib, b/c she decided to climb out. We felt it too dangerous and decided to convert her crib to a toddler bed. After almost 2 hours of putting her down for a nap yesterday the thing that worked was telling her we would lock the door if she kept opening it. We never actually needed to install the lock, just held it closed for a minute. She REALLY hated not being able to open the door so she agreed to stay in her big girl bed. Today I gently reminded her that I would have to lock the door if she kept getting up and to my amazement it worked!! I have also had a lot of friends do the same type thing with a baby gate. I just like to be able to close her door for sound and light reasons. Good luck and hang in there.

What worked for us is that my daughter likes us to leave the door open, so we made a deal. If she stays in bed, the door stays open, if she gets out of bed, the door gets closed. This took several nights of tough love, but it worked. She is allowed to have books and toys on her bed and can play quietly with them, but is not allowed to get out of bed.