I knew the time for switching my son out of the crib and into a big boy bed was rapidly approaching. But it quickly became apparent the window had reached us, the morning I walked into his room and found him attempting to escape.

Luckily, we had already prepared for this moment by having a “Big Boy Bed” set up and ready to go in the next bedroom over.

*see the awesome quilt my wife made!

Here are a few tips I learned from my experience that might make it easier on you.

Cost - Instead of going to Ikea or Target and buying a kid’s bed - look on Craigslist. We found a really nice captains bed for only $50, including the mattress. If you keep your eyes open and don’t force yourself into needing one that day, you can get a bed for a great deal. We did need to end up putting a guard rail on this bed plus, I’m building a wider and taller step stool.

Transition - Talk up the idea of transitioning to a “Bed Boy (or girl) Bed” weeks before the switch. Make it seem like it’s an exciting reward. The more hyped they get about using it the easier the transition will seem.

Amazon

Alarm - Get an alarm for their room that will indicate when it is sleep time and when it is awake time. We were gifted this bunny one. The sleeping bunny will stay illuminated until a given time, for us it’s 6:45a.m., and then it switches to awake bunny. Just yesterday my son rolled out of his room talking about how “bunny said it was okay to get up.”

Morten Liebach

As a parent it can be tough to lose the ability to “cage” in your child when your patience has reached its limit or you just need a moment to unload the groceries. Many parents have talked to me about how their transition was a nightmare but nothing stops the progress of time.

I in no way will say this is the reason for this propensity for staying in bed and not exploring but my wife and I have always let him sleep with a book or two in bed and a cup of water.

If you have great tips for transitioning your child to a bed big and would like to share, leave a comment below!

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