When I shared on Instagram stories that we moved Olivia to a big bed I got lots of messages from fellow mamas that were just about to make the same transition! We always knew we were going to move Olivia from her crib to a queen sized bed before the new baby arrived, since we planned on using her crib in the nursery, so we decided to just go for it and make the switch 4th of July weekend. I’m by no means an expert, but the below tips are what helped us make the move without any problems!
1.) we had the queen bed already set up in another room and just planned on swapping the two when we were ready. Olivia was familiar with the bed, saw it regularly, and the week or so prior to making the switch, we read our nighttime stories in that bed before walking down the hall back to her room for the night.
2.) we read books to her that focused on a cool, new big kid bed. This one and this one are great for this age! Who knows if they really made a difference, but she loves to read and I’m all about positive books (we have this one we’ve been reading to her about becoming a big sister!) to help explain transitions.
3.) the day we took apart her crib and brought the mattress in, we let her “help” us. She had a play tool to pretend with while Brian and I broke down the crib and then brought the new mattress into her room. We made sure to act extra excited about her new bed and that this was “Olivia’s”!
4.) we started with the bed pushed against one wall so there was less chance of her falling out. These inflatable bed bumpers were easy to blow up and just slide under the fitted mattress sheet. They don’t have a velcro or anything to attach to the mattress, but we haven’t had any issues just tucking the strap under the actual mattress itself.
5.) kept our expectations low! We had no idea how she’d do, especially since she was a great sleeper in her crib and had never tried to climb out previously. I actually think it helped us that we moved her before she tried to escape the crib! We tuck her (and her 6 baby dolls/animals that she insists on sleeping with) in each night and she has so far stayed in bed until the next morning. I’m sure she’ll get out to explore around the room as she gets older, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there!
I’m going to share her adorable new bedroom design with y’all soon!
xx
Love this post. Our daughter will turn 2 right before baby number 2 comes so we have been debating on what to do as well. We have a queen bed in another room as well and our daughter has never tried to get out of her crib either so maybe this could work for us too. Can’t wait to see her new bedroom!