Sunday, February 8, 2009

Transitions

We have decided to start transitioning Eliza to her own bed. We do love co sleeping, but we do have a specific reason we are starting this transition now-more on that later this week. We hope to make the transition as smooth as possible for Eliza as we understand she will not sleep in her own bed/ or alone until she is ready. We want to keep bedtime a pleasant experience for everyone.

We currently all sleep on our mattress which is on the floor. We believe this is the safest setup possible. Eliza is a VERY active sleeper and we did not want to risk her falling off the bed (dare I write "fall out AGAIN!"). In order to ease her into her big girl bed we have placed her mattress at the foot of our bed. It is a little lower than ours which makes two separate surfaces. We also put some blankets on the floor on the other side for when (not if) she rolls off. We are going to start placing her in the bed for naps and at bedtime. We are assuming she will probably wake and crawl into bed with his (which is just fine) or one of us will hop down with her to comfort her back to sleep.

We made a really big deal about her bed. She was hopping all over it an playing for quite a while. She helped us to put on the sheet. I placed some blankets and teddy bears there for her. However, we do understand she just might not be ready for this transition. At least the bed will be set-up for when she is ready.

Eliza is sensitive about where she sleeps. She has never slept well in the crib which is why I am opting not to use the toddler bed conversion. It is too high up and not very safe for an active sleeper. Also, her crib is too big to go into our room and I wasn't going to stick her in her room alone in a big girl bed. That would be way to many changes at one. Instead, we are hoping to eventually move her mattress into her bedroom. Maybe! :)

Anyhoo, I will update in a week or so to let everyone know how it is going.

7 comments:

Andrea said...

Yes...do let us know how it goes! And I love the idea of putting the mattress on the floor. I've actually seen other parents do this instead of using a toddler bed too and it seemed to alway work well!

Pam said...

When we moved Ashlyn to a bed, we started with a mattress on the floor too! It was perfect for her to get in and out of as needed and I didn't worry about her falling out because it was already on the floor. Riley isn't ready to transition to a bed yet- but my plan is to put a mattress on the floor again for him. Just seems safer and to make more sense to me. When Ashlyn was older and ready- then we put the bed frame and everything up for her.

I like the idea of having her mattress on the floor in your room- next to you. Since that is what she is used to for sleep- it only makes sense to start the transition there. Moving in baby steps so you don't overwhelm her or you. Good luck- I hope the transition goes well- I'm looking forward to hearing how it all goes!

Lori said...

I hope it goes well for you. when we transitioned Blake we did the mattress on the floor before he moved to his toddler bed, then he had the toddler bed in there for a bit before he was expected to sleep there. I'm sure things will work out the best for all three of you

Sheri said...

What a great idea. You do not want to get in the situation that we are in. Separate beds at night with one kid in each bed with us. What kind of mattress did you get? Is it a baby bed mattress? Definitely keep us updated. This is most likely what we are going to have to do.

Mozi Esme said...

Sounds smart!

We've been going through some of the same issues. Esme had her own mattress - in our room - on the floor, but she has been back in bed with us due to all our traveling, so this last week we set up a camp bed smack up between our bed and the wall - it's just a little lower than ours. And she loved that it was "MY" bed at first! We've had a few hiccups - like her climbing over me to sleep between us again... and she's also capable of getting up off the bed whenever she wants, so we've had a hard time enforcing sleep times. But we're getting there.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a great idea. I would have never thought of that.
Good luck!

Christy said...

Good luck! Sleeping issues are always hard, but I hope the transition goes smoothly for you:)