Big Kid Beds
Immediately after walking downstairs, M launched into a near panic attack, the likes of which I haven’t seen in quite some time. What if they’re scared? What if they’re lonely? What if we’ve done the wrong thing? OH MY GOD, just think of how poorly we’ve childproofed!
It was Saturday night, and we had just put the kids to bed. In their own rooms. In toddler beds.
We took full advantage of the fact that my dad and stepmom were in town. When we put the kids down for their last nap in the cribs, we immediately went to work. The bedroom that has been “the changing room” for the last three years had to become Daniel’s room. (Neither of the bedrooms were big enough to hold two cribs AND dressers.) Loveseat went downstairs. Bookshelves of miscellaneous crap were emptied and put in the garage. In went the new bed, the new rug (chosen by Daniel at IKEA). Some decorations from Target, and now it’s a frigging adorable room.
When the kids got up, we let them explore the new space in progress for a minute, and then sent them down to watch Toy Story while we disassembled the cribs. Of course, I had to bag up all of the hardware, since it turns out the darn things were recalled a year ago. Whoops! Cribs to the garage, bookshelf to the hall, armoire in. And a little girl had her own room.
The first night went well. Rebecca was a little apprehensive at first, but eventually settled in. She did manage to roll out of bed around 3AM, but recovered quickly and went back to sleep. Didn’t hear a peep from Daniel, though when his Good Nite Lite turned yellow at 7:30AM, he marched right into our room to say good morning.
Naptime was a little hairy, but that’s not really much different from how it’s been in cribs lately. There was some getting up, some insisting that they weren’t tired. But eventually both went to sleep.
The second overnight was great, completely silent. Second nap was mixed. Rebecca went down reasonably quickly, but Daniel sang to himself for an hour or more, and pulled off all the vinyl stickers that were within reach. Eventually, after a diaper and sticker intervention and a stern look from Mommy, he did go to sleep.
The truth is, they seem to love their new rooms and new beds. They’re excited about them, they’re proud of them. They don’t seem bothered in the slightest by sleeping in different rooms. Rebecca is tickled by the fact that she’s allowed to get up and use the potty all by herself, and sent M back into our room when he went to help her one time (she then walked past our door without so much as a glance, into her room, and closed the door – Miss Independent). I still worry about what kind of trouble Daniel is going to manage to find, and that he may end up dropping his nap before he’s truly ready, but overall he’s doing well.
I had always thought I’d keep the kids in cribs until they were three, but with all of the travel and transitions coming up over the next few months, I figured two years and ten months was close enough. I know there will be more testing of boundaries over the next few weeks, and that I have definitely lost a big aspect of control that I had in the cribs. But it was time.
Goodbye, cribs. I don’t have babies anymore. I have big kids.
Tags: crib transition, separating twins, sharing bedrooms, toddler beds
May 31st, 2010 at 10:38 pm
I’m impressed. Our transition was so frustrating. We kept all four in the same room and it resulted into “slumber parties” that went well into the night. When we finally split the girls into two rooms, it was a much easier process. Maybe we should have split them sooner : ) Congrats on a successful transition.
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May 31st, 2010 at 11:34 pm
The rooms are adorable! Glad it went so smoothly!
SeriousMom´s last blog ..Mom vs. spider
June 1st, 2010 at 12:16 am
Where did you get the rug in Rebecca’s room??? Me likey and I really need a new rug.
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June 1st, 2010 at 6:40 am
Wow, haven’t they done well? My girl was 2-and-a-half when she went into her big bed (for safety reasons – she was climbing out of her cot!!) and we didn’t look back! Admittedly we didn’t have naps at all by then (but she slept 12 hours all night EVERY night so we don’t complain too much!) because we’d had to accept that maybe naptime was coming to the end of it’s life. And it’s usefulness when a 15 minute snooze put 3 hours on bedtime!! You’ve all done brilliantly, though! What cute rooms (nice quilts!! heh heh) and isn’t the “I’m a big girl” attitude hilarious! Bless her cotton socks. WTG kids!!
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June 1st, 2010 at 9:07 am
I love how you’ve done the rooms! It often strikes me that our children don’t blink at transitions we consider huge, and then get all worked up about things we consider tiny. I’m sure there’s a pattern.
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June 1st, 2010 at 9:29 am
AWESOME!!! Love the individual space and a major milestone achievement. We pushed out the crib until I think the next stage was prison bars.
We did convert to the Toddler bed in between but kept him in his nursery still the same. We made a really big deal when we moved Ben to his big boy room this Feb to make way for Ian and have so far not had a regression.
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June 1st, 2010 at 10:29 am
The rooms are adorable! Glad they are transitioning well.
We transitioned Alaina just before she turned 3 from “nap time” to “quiet time”. The change in terminology seemed to make her more calm about going into her room every afternoon. And 95% of the time, she would end up sleeping. But the important thing was that she quiet because THAT was the rule. At some point they don’t need as much sleep, but they do need to just relax and calm down, and so do Mommy and Daddy! If I have my way, we’ll keep “quiet time” until they go to college!
June 1st, 2010 at 12:07 pm
“Goodbye, cribs. I don’t have babies anymore. I have big kids.” And the sobbing has begun. thanks.
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June 1st, 2010 at 2:43 pm
It sounds like they are doing well with the transition, I hope it keeps going smoothly! You should all be so proud! Oh and I LOVE their rooms, they’re so cool!!
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June 1st, 2010 at 3:41 pm
It sounds like things went relatively smoothly (because you know it could have been a disaster
)and I am happy they loved having their own space. The bedrooms are really, really cute:-) My only question is if you anchored any of the heavy furniture to the walls. When we transitioned Kate a few weeks ago, that was one thing we made sure to do. She is not a climber in any way, but it only takes a few seconds of curiosity for her to wonder what it would be like to stand on top of her dresser by pulling out the drawers and possibly on top of her. My non-climbing nephew did that once at a similar age while I was babysitting and the 5 ft dresser came down on top of him (I was in the room, my back turned to him, while changing his brother’s diaper). He was OK, and I learned a pretty good lesson that kids’ curiosities can lead to some scary consequences.
Love Miss Independent’s attitude!
June 1st, 2010 at 3:48 pm
nice! their rooms are adorable and it sounds like the whole thing has been relatively painless. i still maintain that most of these transitions are harder (or we make it harder) on ourselves!
June 1st, 2010 at 11:36 pm
Woooo the rooms look faboosh! And this is momentous indeed. We are a long way off from this milestone, but I hope it goes as well for us when we get there.
Jungletwins´s last blog ..And a Cherry Tree
June 2nd, 2010 at 4:20 pm
and I wonder if the separate rooms isn’t the key to success? so not what I had planned at all. your “Goodbye cribs” line made me cry. it is pretty much the last bastion of babyhood, huh? I hope I deal as well as you are.
June 2nd, 2010 at 4:40 pm
YEAH for big kids
VERY cute rooms!!
Nancy´s last blog ..All Kids Can
June 3rd, 2010 at 9:08 pm
new to your blog, but wanted to let you know how fun it’s been to skim through and see what i have to look forward to (my b/g twins are 8 months).
congrats on the big kid beds!!!