Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Making A Big Girl Room (No Crib!)

Well, Clara has officially made the full transition from crib to bed. We never expected her to sleep in her crib for so long (we’ve been “at the ready” with a big girl bed for over a year now, since many of her friends started making the switch back then), but this girl just loves to surprise us and truly adored her crib. And we adored that she was sleeping soundly all night long (even after being potty trained, she was able to hold it ’til the morning). So we didn’t want to rock the boat for all of our sakes, and decided to trust our doc when he said “let sleeping kids lie – she’ll let you know when she’s ready.”

Crib Before 2

When she started taking “play naps” in her big girl bed, we took it as a sign that she was showing some interest. And then a few real naps followed the play naps, and then she wanted to try her big girl bed out during the night as well, and thus the transition began. Now she’s 100% in her big girl bed (and has been for the last month or so, which is why we’re finally confident enough to make mathematical statements like 100%).

Our biggest fear about the transition was that she’d use it as an opportunity to get up and play at night, or wake us up crazy early in the morning – but she has surprised us once again and has made the switch really smoothly. Except for a couple getting-up-to-put-another-stuffed-animal-in-her-bed incidents, she has slept through the night and through naps without issue. We’re thrilled and extremely relieved.

Big Girl Bed Reading

Half of me can’t believe that she was so happy to sleep in a crib for so long, and the other half of me can’t believe she’s now sleeping on a big twin sized mattress every night. How is she not still a tiny infant in my arms? You blink and they’re all grown up. No I’m not crying, there’s just dust in my eye.

The most exciting thing about this development is that we could finally move the crib out of her room. We waited about a month to do this since we didn’t want her to feel like it got ripped away from her the moment she was finished using it. And as we were moving it out, we told her how now it would make more room for fun things.

Crib Before5

So here’s the blank in-between look that the wall was sporting…

Empty Wall

… and here’s what it’s looking like now.

Dresser Birdcages2

I know, I know – we said “make more room for fun” and then we put a dresser there. But the wall where the dresser used to live… well, we’re working on a complete wall o’ fun for her there. Plus Clara was so excited for us to hang the birdcages from her playroom up above her dresser in its new spot (between the striped toy baskets, the moose lamp, the play table and chairs, the daybed, and the pile of art that we’re planning to hang, this room is turning into a nice mix of stuff from her nursery and her playroom).

It still feels a little sparse though, so I think we might layer in some more art or put something in the birdcages (piles of ribbons? Clara is obsessed with ribbons lately…) so this wall isn’t finished, but I think it’s inching in the right direction.

Dresser Birdcages3

As for how we hung the birdcages, we just used white plant hooks in the ceiling screwed into anchors to hold them nice and firmly up there. And when it comes to their placement, John just held them up and I stood back and said “there – no there! – ok, right there!” and we marked the spots on the ceiling, hung the hooks, and then adjusted the ribbon length on each one until we liked their hanging height.

Dresser Trying Birdcages

Of course, during the whole get-the-hooks-in-the-ceiling part of the objective, our little assistant was happy to play with the birdcages. At one point she even picked both of them up and breathlessly said “I love carrying birdcages around.” I’d have a picture of that for you, but we were both laughing so hard that we couldn’t see straight. But I did get this one slightly before that moment…

Clara Birdcage

Oh and this can be filed under “small details” but that bowl on the dresser full of blocks always bugged me because while the top of it was all glossy and red (it was originally just a white bowl from Ikea that I spray painted for a book project), the bottom was all splotchy and half-sprayed… which NEVER would have bothered me if it wasn’t visible, but since it has curved sides, you could clearly see the messy underbelly (scroll two pics up to see what I mean). So I finally did something I’ve been meaning to do forever, and painted the bottom a contrasting color.

Red Bowl Before

It only took me twenty minutes, and I have no idea why I waited so long. As for how I got ‘er done, I rubbed the bottom of the bowl with liquid deglosser, just to get it paint-ready. Then I used a small brush and a test pot of paint that we’ve had around forever (Embellished Blue by Behr) to coat the bottom of the bowl. The small brush and thin application got me through it without any drips onto the front, and after two coats and some drying time, it was ready to rock out on the dresser again.

Red Bowl After

Here’s that side of the room from the doorway now. Oh and see those hooks on the side of the dresser? Those used to hold the wet bags for our cloth diapers, but I strung up two ribbons to hold hair clips for Clara. She likes snapping them off and on, so it’s sort of like a fun new activity for her. Such a funny gal.

After From Door2

Speaking of funny, it’s funny how you can get so used to turning the corner and seeing this…

Crib Before 3

… and suddenly it’s not there anymore.

But the most exciting wall of the room is still in progress (you can see the corners of a few items that we’ve added to the mix on the right of this room shot). I still have a few things to paint/hang/drill, but we’re hoping to have that all done and photographed for you guys on Thursday.

After With Kitchen

Until then, I’d love to hear about other people’s crib-to-bed switching experiences. Were your kids super young and climbing out of the crib? Is Clara going to end up in the Guinness Book Of World Records for Longest Holdout? Is your son or daughter in a toddler bed, or did they make the switch straight to a twin sized mattress? It’s amazing how kids all move at different paces for things like walking, talking, and bed sleeping (Clara was a really early-talker, but had no interest in walking for a while – and certainly liked her crib more than most). I love that they all move at their own sweet little pace.

Psst- We’re chatting about baby names (and what the bun would have been named if he was a she) over on Young House Life.

Comments

  2. Lana says

    I have a birdcage on a dresser in our living room, and we filled it with Christmas lights! It makes the perfect night light for crossing the house at night. Maybe that’s an idea for the ones in Clara’s room (especially since now is the perfect time to go pick some out)?

    Reply

  4. AnnMarie says

    Yay Clara!

    Do you think you’d be into writing a post about how you guys handle discipline? Clara seems like the dream kid, does she even have behavior issues?! I know it isn’t those most exciting/happy/lovey dovey topic…but it’s something I’m sure many of us would like to hear about and discuss!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, she’s just like every other kid. She has tantrums and cries and screams – we just don’t put that stuff on the internet! I definitely think the whole discipline thing has evolved for us as Clara ages (we used to use a lot of redirection and positive re-enforcement like acknowledging when she’s being good to hopefully promote more of that or distracting her if she’s getting into something she shouldn’t be). We still rely on those methods sometimes, but she’s older now and can understand “earning rewards” for good behavior (ex: “if you’re a good listener, we can go to the bookstore this afternoon!”) as well as the consequences of not listening or doing what we have asked, so there’s a bit more of that going on.

      xo
      s

  5. Samantha says

    I love how Clara’s room is shaping up! Our firstborn loved his crib. Then little sister was coming along, so at 2 1/2 we worked hard to transition him to a twin bed. He did fine with it, but we worried a lot about him getting up at night and going on adventures. Thankfully, he didn’t do much of that. But the crazy part was that when his sister was born, she screamed like we were abusing her any time we tried to lay her in that crib. She didn’t even want to sit in it and play while I took a quick shower. It was crazy! And third baby was the same way. So we kicked ourselves for kicking him out of the crib right away, but who knew his sisters would be so anti-crib??? Craziest thing…

    Reply

  6. amy @ drivethirtythree says

    the room looks awesome! And hooray for big girl bed!!

    my son was so good..it took him like 5 months to realize he could get out of the twin bed on his own. I never slept so much in my life. and now…my daughter is in a toddler bed and is up various times, ALL. NIGHT. LONG. she likes to come in and cuddle with me, or tell me she needs a paci, or just say hi. I’m so over it…and so tired. LOL!!

    Reply

  7. Kim says

    I love the birdcages from the ceiling and still love the canopy. I am trying to figure out some form of 3-d art for my 18 month old – still in transition from neutral nursery to a girl (but not a pink princess) room.
    Our son who is a day younger than Clara was 2 when we had our daughter and I refused to spend the money on another crib or crib mattress so…we decorated the spare bedroom with trucks and trains, put a twin mattress and boxspring on the floor (so he could climb in and out himself and if he fell it was a short drop) and moved all his stuff in there but left him in the baby room in the crib. We started calling the guestroom “W’s Room” and his old room just the nursery. We thought we would have to force the issue and were planning on it about 3 months before my due date so W would have been 1 yr 10 months but about a month before that he just asked if he could sleep in his new big boy bed and we never looked back. It was a Tuesday night so we were a bit hesitant to make that shift on a weekday since we both work outside the home BUT he asked and it went smoothly. We are starting to think aobut our 18month old and when we should begin transitioning her – with her we plan to transition her crib to the toddler bed. She is starting to climb into her big brother’s bed and cover up and pretend to sleep so perhaps the time is coming soon. I think each kid is different and I agree with your doctor why rush it if you dont have to…our kids are daycare kids so they start sleeping outside of the crib during naps at 15 months. It is not as foreign to them.

    Reply

  8. Kristin says

    Growing up a friend had a birdcage in her room and used tiny clothespins to hang up pictures of friends and family in and around it. Maybe a bit messier than your general aesthetic calls for but I was always jealous of it.

    Reply

  9. Diane says

    We switched our son early (18-20 months) because we wanted him transitioned well before the new baby came, so he wouldn’t resent her for stealing his crib. We set up the new bed and would encourage him to nap and sleep in it, but ultimately let him decide. Thankfully, it took only a couple of months.

    Getting the big boy bed was a debacle (story alert): We had a long and argumentative trip to IKEA (my husband wanted a full size, I thought that would be too big for the room, plus I was pregnant and the maze that is IKEA’s top floor always makes me crazy) but finally agreed on one. We got the 10 zillion boxes of parts outside to our two cars needed to fit it all, and my husband discovered he had two different colors of parts, so he went back in to exchange some. At home weeks later halfway through assembly, I was saying “it’s too big, it’s too big” and husband was saying “no it’s not, no it’s not,” and our son was mixing up all the hardware, and husband realized we had pieces for two different sizes of the same bed. More arguments ensued about who lost the receipt (it was him).

    Finally we gave up and accepted my sister’s offer of her son’s old bed, and returned the IKEA pieces for store credit (LOTS of it). (I also gave away a couple more pieces of that bed I found months later.) And then on our next well-check after that, the doctor said it’s best to just get a mattress and put it on the floor.

    Reply

  10. Candice says

    My twin sister and I slept in our own cribs until we were 6 years old! We are the youngest of 6 children and our parents probably just didn’t get around to buying big girl beds. I remember sleeping in my parents’ bed one night (while my dad set up the new beds). He carried us to our new beds after they were all set up. Boy were we surprised to wake up in our new beds in the morning!

    Reply

  11. Libby says

    I was 6ish when I got bumped from the crib because baby sister was coming. Years not months!
    All 4 of my kids were 2ish. Usually because the next one was coming or he wouldn’t stay in it anyways (#3). #4 had her crib just not set up after we moved houses. No transitions just “yer a big kid now”.
    #2 would climb over the railing but instead of swinging the first leg over would balance with both knees on the rail! After a midnight nosedive I comforted him & put him back in without turning the light on…in the morning I found dried blood on his nose…bad mom of the year! I put the mattress up as high as it could go then put the side down (this was the 80’s) and placed a kitchen chair beside it for him to use to get down safely. Then we went out and bought bunkbeds because by then #3 was on his way.

    Reply

  12. Casey says

    Hey I’m not sure if this is my browser issue or a new advertising approach but all of the images get a gray strip ad about an inch high. So I either can’t see the bottom inch of the images or I have to “X” out the box each time. Is that on purpose or a new thing Google sprung on y’all?

    Reply

    • Casey says

      PS: That’s for horizontal images. For vertical images a magnifying glass is on the upper left hand corner and when you hover over it (or near it honestly) an ad pops up that takes up about a quarter of the image.

    • YoungHouseLove says

      ARGH! That’s definitely not on purpose! So sorry for the trouble to anyone who’s seeing that. We hate pop ups with a passion and they’re never allowed on our site. Wait, but you’re saying the images within our posts have ads popping in front of them when you scroll over them? I don’t even know how that would happen (hacking code?). Is anyone else seeing this? More info would help us nip it in the bud (screen grabs help too). Casey, are you seeing it on other sites or just ours?

      xo
      s

    • Casey says

      I can email you screen grabs – what email address do I send it to?

      And yeah, the actual images have pop ups.

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh man, that’s so annoying Casey, I’m so sorry! You can send them to [email protected]. Also is there any way you can check a few other blogs to see if it’s happening in more than one place (could be something buggy going on). For example, does makingitlovely.com have the same issue? We have the same template, so that would be info that would help us!

      xo
      s

  13. Tara says

    Congrats to Clara on the big transition! We moved our 20 month old to, first a floor bed, and then a toddler bed about a month ago. He’s an awful sleeper and our sleep consultant thought it might actually be good for him to have the freedom to walk around. So far, no good! But we don’t want to switch him back to a crib. We might retry the floor bed, he does so great on one at his Montessori classroom!

    Reply

  14. Brenda says

    Any particular reason you didn’t hang the white birdcage? I see that it was in the room during the hanging process, so I’m assuming that it didn’t feel like the right fit for the space to hang all three. Do you have plans to use it somewhere else?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, it was just too wide/big for over the dresser (it was deeper than the dresser itself, so we thought we’d bump heads on it getting clothes out of the drawers) but I’d love to use it somewhere else!

      xo
      s

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I don’t really know other than she’s just old enough to get that we mean business when we say “please don’t get up in the night from your crib because it’s sleeping time” – haha! I definitely think that would be hard to grasp if she were younger though (she’s 3.5 now).

      xo
      s

    • Wilma says

      There are no secrets–because every child is different :)
      My first was moved to a queen bed (IKEA Malm, so low to the floor) when he was 2 years and a couple of months, because we moved provinces and baby #2 was on the way. He cried for an hour the first night, and then never looked back. He didn’t even realize that he could get out of bed for months and months. Even now (he’s almost 4.5) he won’t get out of bed unless he needs to use the bathroom, and he still calls us first.

      Now on to number two…well, he’s now two years and a few months old, and we would like the two brothers to share a room, as we’re going to have another baby in the summer. The first night sleeping in his new twin bed went ok–he only got up once (although he spent a good 1/2 hour “whispering”, “I sleeping…sleeping…go sleeping…, etc.”, which was cute). Last night? He got up, oh, about 15 times. The last time he went to the living room, turned the Christmas tree lights on, and proceeded to get out a book and start reading. And it was about 9 p.m. Um, no. I put him back in his crib (let’s just say he was less than impressed), and said that we could try again tomorrow. He cried for about 20 minutes and went to sleep. Yeah.

      I think that our transition for our second child is going to be tough. He’s just a much more opinionated kid.

      So, all this to say, there is probably nothing you’re doing wrong, etc. etc. It kind of sucks that there is no set of rules to follow that would make everything work, but that’s life, I guess!

  16. allison says

    Our almost 3 year old transitioned around 1 1/2 to a toddler bed. She learned how to climb out of her crib onto her dresser, thus breaking a sweet piggy bank and knocking a bunch of stuff down. Luckily her transition went really well and she happily sleeps in her bed. Also John reminds me of the husband on the blacklist!

    Reply

  17. Diane says

    My daughter was a early talker and loved her crib. When she was 31/2 we moved to our new house and together planned her new room with her big girl bed with pretty sheets and comforter. Thankfully it all went well since I was also 6 months pregnant and was needing that crib!!

    Reply

  18. Sarai says

    I am loving Clara’s room!

    My children were much closer together in age (20 months apart), so when my son was 18 months, we put him on a “floor bed”- just a mattress on the floor (it was much cuter than it sounds! ha!), so he had a couple months to get used to the idea before his sister came along. Then we got him a twin bed a few months later. It was a very easy transition because he was so young. Since it worked so well for our son, we made a pallet bed for our daughter when she was 18 months old. It has a twin mattress on top of the pallets. She is now 2 still loves it. So funny how all kids are different! I am happy my kids transitioned easily- I have heard some kids really do not like making the switch! Glad it went well for you!

    Reply

  21. Autumn says

    Love the way her room is shaping up! My three kids were all quite different when it came to the move from crib to big bed. Baby #1 moved right at two years to make room for baby #2. She made the switch shortly before turning 3, because we were planning to move twice within the next few months (we sold our house but our new house wasn’t built yet!) and didn’t want to mess with tearing down and setting up a crib multiple times. And baby #3 was in a big bed at 18 months, because he slept horribly in the crib, so we figured why not give it a try, and it was the best decision ever!

    Reply

  22. Sylvie says

    So glad it was a smooth transition. We had a rough transition for our 2.5 yr old earlier this year. We had the mattress on the floor for a while, both parents taking turns to sleep in her room with her, then the first day we put the mattress on the frame – she falls out and breaks her arm. Needed a cast from her hand to her shoulder! Luckily, healing is fast at that age so it was only for 3 weeks!

    Reply

  24. Brittany says

    This has me crying, looking at my sweet one week old boy in his swing and telling him to just stay little. (I blame the postpartum hormones!) But seriously, her room is adorable and like others have said, I love how it’s not such a typical little girl’s room. It could transition easily into anything she wants it to be!

    Reply

  25. Audrey says

    My son crawled at 4 months and walked at 9 months. He started trying to climb out of his crib around 11 months and finally figured it out when he was 13 months old. Even with the crib tent he managed to climb out of the crib. So he moved to a toddler bed at 13 months (and into a big boy twin bed at 18 months) :-)

    BTW, I LOVE the bird cages in Clara’s room. I might have to borrow the idea for my guestroom :-)

    Reply

    • Audrey says

      Geez my post sounds so obnoxious. LOL Sorry about that. The girls were both very calm and never once tried to climb out of anything. Then along he came and everything was a hurry. He certainly keeps me on my toes. :-)

    • YoungHouseLove says

      You’re so sweet Audrey, it didn’t sound obnoxious at all! I definitely know what you mean about kids being so different. We’re bracing ourselves for a whole new experience with the bun!

      xo
      s

  26. Kate says

    So cute to see her snuggled up in her big girl bed! I bet the canopy and the lights didn’t hurt her wanting to make it her permanent place. :)

    I’m feeling the unease of a child who wants to do things at her own pace. My little one is 10 months and seems to be developmentally okay, but has just recently started rolling around, hasn’t crawled yet or pulled herself up, etc. All of her little friends her same age are walking, and the ones a few months earlier are crawling and some are even cruising on furniture. I try to just take a deep breath, remind myself of the areas where she does excell (like her fine motor skills), and have faith that she will catch up on her own timetable.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Some kids just like to wait until they master something, I think. Clara didn’t crawl until around 10 months and didn’t walk until around 15 months, which we heard was somewhat behind what many other kids were doing, but then when she did walk, she could pirouette and squat and change directions immediately. It was hilarious. It was like she waited until she had full command of her body and then didn’t only walk, but took it upon herself to perform dance routines just days after taking those first steps.

      xo
      s

  28. Viviana says

    How cute! Mine just turned 3 and loves her crib. She doesn’t try to climb out and I am at peace that she won’t get out in the middle of the night to explore or come to my room at the crack of dawn. I plan on enjoying this wonderful arrangement until her feet are poking through the bars or she starts hearing her friends talk about their big girl beds :)

    Reply

  29. Liz | Hogs Ever After says

    This room is my favorite! I have no clue if it was intentional but the birdcages, cuckoo clock, and birdhouse shaped canopy all give a wink to a bird motif without being one of *those* kid rooms. This is so fun and will evolve with her easily. Y’all are awesome once again!

    Reply

  30. Sam says

    Love this room! Our daughter is 18 months now and with baby #2 on the way (due mid-May!) we decided to get a second crib so we didn’t have to transition her out of hers right away. We plan to keep her there as long as possible – basically until she starts attempting (or managing) to climb out on her own.

    When she does transition, her crib becomes a toddler bed then converts to a full-size, so hopefully she can hang out in her toddler bed for a few years before upgrading to a big full-size! :)

    Reply

  32. Emily says

    We moved my son out of his crib straight into a twin-sized bed shortly before he turned two. He was fine in the crib, but baby#2 was on her way and we needed the crib for her! It was not the smoothest transition, and in hindsight I wish we had left him in his crib and had bought a second crib for baby #2.

    For my daughter, we’ll convert the crib to a toddler bed once she starts climbing out. She’s almost 2 and seems happy enough in the crib for now.

    Reply

  33. Darcy says

    I agree with other commenters — I want to live in Clara’s room! Its soo awesome!

    So, last year when my son was 3, for his birthday in September we got him a toddler Fire Truck bed, hopeing to transition him before baby boy #2 was due in December. He loved his crib, never tried to climb out or anything so I was afraid. But he saw that fire truck bed, and slept in it from day 1.
    He was excited to move the crib for his baby brother, and he would always bring toys to put in the crib for “our baby” (which he still calls him, btw)! It was super cute!!

    Reply

  34. Amber says

    Wasn’t that dresser your old changing table? You must have great plans for a new one in the nursery! Can’t wait to see :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, it has just been such a great dresser for her and her clothes that we hate to separate them. Haha! So the bun will end up with something else (maybe the hand-me-down dresser that we currently have in our closet?) that hopefully serves as a surface for diaper changes and a storage spot for his cute little clothes.

      xo
      s

  35. Colleen says

    1st son bopped out at a heart attack inducing 17 mos. 2nd son decided to not be an over achiever and waited til 19 mos to climb out. Son #3 is not showing any signs of climbing out (he is 16 mos) and this mama is praying each night he holds tight til next summer bc his sister is due the first few days of March…..

    Reply

  36. Jennifer Edger says

    My son was a climber! He started climbing out of his crib at 12 months! He couldn’t even walk on his own yet. One morning, I put him in his crib so I could take a shower, I got out to find him playing with toys in the middle of his bedroom floor! He made the transition into a twin bed at 13 months. I was afraid he would fall climbing over the crib rails. He did great, he was always a good sleeper. He went down for naps and bedtime without any fuss everyday.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Alas, it was too big for over the dresser (it actually poked out more than the dresser so we thought we’d bump our heads on it while getting clothes from the drawers). I’d love to find another spot for it though!

      xo
      s

  38. Sarah P says

    Our oldest woke us screaming at 2am one morning aged about 18 months after he had somehow managed to get his leg stuck between the bars of his cot. We could not get his leg free without getting the saw out and cutting through the wood! So I spent the next day racing around to buy him a ‘grown up’ bed so he would have somewhere to sleep the following night. Luckily he did not seem to be traumatised by the whole experience and made the transition with no problems!

    Reply

  41. Rachel Laree says

    I posted earlier but forgot to ask you – What color curtain would go with a dark gray plum color on the walls in a dining room? My rug is a navy blue and medium blue chevron. You have such great style when it comes to matching the curtains and rugs in the room.

    Reply

  42. Amie says

    We are trying to do the same thing with our daughter, let her take her time and tell us when she is ready. Buuuuuut she will be 5 in February and is totally content in her crib/toddler bed! We have a second one on the way in February and are hoping she will magically make the switch before then.

    Reply

  43. Tara G says

    Both of our children went straight from a crib to a twin bed. Our daughter was two when she made the switch. Our son was 15 months. He broke not one, but two cribs by grabbing the “bars” and shaking when he woke up. We figured if he managed to break two cribs, a toddler bed probably wouldn’t fare well either and we went straight for a sturdy twin bed. We bought a rail made for small children so he wouldn’t fall off the bed while sleeping. He used that until he was around two and a half. He is going to turn 13 in a week and he still sleeps in that bed.

    Reply

  44. Stevie says

    We have a girl around Clara’s age. She started crawling out of her crib at 14 months and we made the switch at 18. It was a pretty smooth transition, actually. We have a one-year-old boy now and I think he’ll probably be ready for the switch around 18 months as well. I think at that point we will just invest in a KURA from IKEA since they share a room. A la this:

    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/296604325430447571/

    Glad Clara is enjoying her new space!

    Reply

  45. Jackie says

    I’m all for the “let sleeping kids lie” plan except that our 2yr is still happy in her crib and our 3 month old is dozing in the cradle (luckily it’s a large wooden cradle). I thought our toddler would have climbed out months ago! We’re setting up her big girl bed after Christmas and hope that will be enough to entice her to make the move voluntarily. Otherwise we either evict the toddler or borrow/buy a 2nd crib…

    Reply

  46. Patti says

    Seeing that picture of you and John at the crib choked me up a little…it took me back to a memory from 1989 of hubs and I putting together the cribs for our twin boys. I remember it like it was yesterday! They’re now 24, one of which expecting his first in June. Such sweet memories!

    Reply

  47. Brittany says

    You have probably answered this before, but since I’m a new reader, I’m going to ask… where is Clara’s (now the bean’s?) crib from? I love the style!

    Reply

  49. Rosie says

    Clara’s bedroom is really coming together! It is adorable…what a fun space! My little one began climbing out of the crib at 18 months, so we had to make the switch early. We tried converting her crib to the daybed, and also putting her mattress right on the ground, but she wouldn’t stay in bed. We had an old futon couch in her room that I used for nursing at night her first year. We folded it out and it makes a full-size bed that is low to the ground. After a while she began to sleep there all night. We will get her a “big kid” bed once she is done potty training. Use what you got!

    Reply

    • Rosie says

      I just remembered that during the transition, I peeked in on her one evening and she had climbed up onto her changing table and was sound asleep. We had to move all the furniture out of her room. I can’t believe that I forgot about that!

  50. Janey says

    We transitioned from crib to firetruck toddler bed when our guy was about 20 months because the little acrobat was trying to climb out of the crib and we were afraid he’d fall. No significant problems with popping out during the night, but one funny/scary story: one night I went to check on him before heading to bed myself and He. Was. Not. In. The. Bed! Yikes! My heart stopped and I began to frantically look for him, thinking he’d just gotten up and was wandering the house. Small house, so that didn’t take long. My husband and I then searched his room, getting more and more terrified by the second, but we have a house alarm that beeps when a door or window opens, so we *knew* he had to be in the house somewhere. Finally I peeked under the little low toddler bed and there he was, curled up with his toy kitty, fast asleep UNDER the bed. We lifted up the bed to get to him, tucked him back in, and have been telling the story ever since. He’s 11 now. :-)

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