2.5 yr old wants nothing to do w/big girl bed

[dfomin]

Totally happy with her crib, also we had our 2nd baby in February so...regression with bottle and potty too. But we'll need the crib in a few months for baby, so want to get her in the bed sooner than later to allow a time buffer so she doesn't think baby is like "taking" her crib over.

Help?
Hacks?
Sorcery?

 

[sgtben]

@dfomin Can you buy a pack and play for your second until your toddler is ready to transition to a bed?

 

[christopherc]

@dfomin We just transitioned our 2 year old because we have another coming in June. We tried giving him the option for a week but even though he was excited about the big boy bed, he always chose the crib. So finally we had him help us take the crib apart so there were no surprises and then he didn't have a choice. We've had a week of crying just before bedtime but once the lights are out he settles in just fine. He seemed a lot happier when we set up the "ok to wake" light in his room. He seemed concerned about waking up and once we got the light he was very excited to wait for the green. We also went against the grain and told him that his crib was going to be a gift for baby sister because he's a natural caretaker and gift giver so we thought that would go over well with him and it did. Whenever he cries for his crib we remind him that we took it apart and it's going to be baby girl's now and he settles down right away and is happy with that.

 

[cbear87]

@dfomin Can you turn her crib into a bed? We put our daughter into a tiddler bed just before 2 y/o, as she was starting to try and climb out of her cot, and I had visions of concussions and screams at midnight. We just had her watch my partner take the bars off one side, and replace it with the wooden bed guard, leaving everything the same, and she got ridiculously excited that she could then climb in and out by herself.

 

[esiar]

@dfomin We transitioned our daughter out of the crib around the same time, also with a baby on the way.

She was excited about the bed when we first got it, but hardly slept in it and chose the floor instead.

To this day (>1yr later), she still sleeps on a nap mat on a soft rug on the floor most nights.

So maybe offer the floor as an option, so she has a choice?

 

[trinichristiannudist]

@dfomin It took my toddler a couple of months to be interested in sleeping in his big boy bed. He moved out right before we needed the crib for our second. We let him pick out sheets for his new bed and would read books with him on his new bed and just periodically ask if he wanted to sleep in his new bed that night. Eventually his answer was "yes". I'm not quite sure what we would have done if the baby outgrew the bassinet before the toddler moved into his bed, but we did have a pack and play we could have used.