HELP - Moving to a bed

[mumma bear]

Hi, i am new and need HELP with my 20 month old girl who has just moved into a bed.

We took her to the shops to pick out the bed and sheets etc, she was very excited. She participated when we dismantled the cot and put up the new bed. It all went quite well until it can to falling asleep in the bed.

Normally i would put her into the cot shut the door and she would go to sleep. Now i put her in the bed and during the day was spending the entire nap time putting her back to bed. By the end of the day she was so exhausted she fell asleep after a few returns to bed.

I got some advice from a friend who suggested putting a gate across her doorway to keep her in her room. I did this and she either falls asleep on the floor inside the gate or plays with anything she can find in her room.

Then i got some advice from another friend who suggested explaining to her that if she got out of bed i would have to close the door (not permanently, just for a few seconds but she doesn't know that) and if she stays on the bed the door can stay open. This has worked the last 2 nights but again she has been exhausted from no day nap.

During the day my main problem is that my baby always seems to need his mum when she has nap tme and fair enough, she should be napping for 2 hours. Any suggestions on how to get her to nap in her bed during the day.

Do you think at 20m she might not need/want a day sleep? I am not convinced on this because if we are out in the car she will fall asleep as early as 10.30am.

Hope you can HELP!

[cwsmum]

My DS stopped having day sleeps long before we moved him to a bed...and he was 18mths when we did this. But like your DD, he would often fall asleep in the car.

I just told him that he needed to have some quiet time in his room and left him in there with some books to read. Sometimes he would stay on his bed for ages looking at them, other times he would get up and play, very rarely he fell asleep. We also had a gate across his door...I don't like closing doors on kids rooms. I figured as long as he was playing quietly and stayed in there for a reasonable time then at least I would have had a break from him and be in a better mood to deal with him.

He's now 3...most days he still has a rest, he calls it 'relax time' coz I told him to lay on the couch and relax and watch nemo one day...

[Me]

My suggestion would be to pop down to the newsagent buy some colourful cardboard, pretty glittery pens, gold stickers and a red marker. so then just work out what behaviour deserves what response eg staying in bed and sleeping gets a gold star, quietly relaxing/playing in her room gets a glittery smily face but getting out of bed continually gets a red sad face... set a number of how many gold stars she needs in a row to get a particular reward.

Good luck with it - i'm sure she'll get the hang of it shortly

[yummmmy_mummy]

first of all i would like to say that seeing ur baby sleeping in there big bed for the first time is the most pride i have felt in a while. my dd is 21 months and just moved to the big bed

we were have the same problem with the day sleep thing as although she could probably cope with out it i insist on her having a rest even if she doesnt sleep as that is my me time and she only ever does a poo during "rrest time" as she always to busy any other time

anyway i was talking to a friend of a friend who had the same problem and they left theyre porta cot in the room and when child got out of bed she was told if she didnt stay in her bed shed have to go in the cot if she still got out of the bed she was put in the cot she soon got the point this particular method did not work for my dd as she thinks its fun so for day time rest she is put straight in the porta cot and stays there happily talking to herself and her doll and sometimes even sleeps i know this may not be practical for u and it may seem like it defeaats the purpose but for now it works for me and when i think she is ready to stop haveing day rest or i think she will understand the concquences of what happens when she gets out of bed i will stop it i hope this helps and sorry i kinda went on but somethings just really need to be described properly:ecomcity: :detective:

[melbryan]

My son is 22mths and moved into a big bed at 18mths I say about the first 2 months it was hard to keep him in bed. The problem was trying to get him to sleep when he wasn't really really tired.
When he is at child care he doesn't sleep because of all the noise but when he is home he must go down at 11am as he starts being really grumpy and gets worse as the day goes on. I know this cause when he is told no he starts to whinge. All I say is, , You are very tried it's time for bed off you go, find your blanket and your dummy and he toddles straight to his bed , he crawls up I tuck him in and shut the door. He can't open it, but by that time he will know he has to stay in bed.The odd time he gets out and bangs on the door I tell him in stern words it's time to sleep now, don't get out of your bed . Good night. He usually understands what I mean from my firm voice. I always check on him before I go to bed to make sure he can't get cold in the night. When he has a good nights sleep he wakes up in a great mood.
My biggest thing is keeping him up till I see the signs of tired eyes etc about 8pm and then I know it's time. Just say bed time and he knows, it's great to have him in this routine as it's time for me and DH to relax. Once he is there there's no coming out know matter how loud the cry. That's our rule, he is really good in his bed now.:ecomcity:
Hope this can help.

[yummmmy_mummy]

id just like to update since posting my last message dd has worked out how to climb out of her porta cot which isnt really a problem as i jsut put her back in and after a couple of times she gets the point and stays in there or lays on the floor either ones fine by me as long as she having a rest or she drives me insane in the afternoon

[creativewarrior]

i hunted down this thread hoping to find answers NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! i really just have to suffer through it dont i!

we just moved amber 18mths into single bed as she would climb out of the cot in a flash so wasnt much point keeping her in there... nighttime sleeps are fine, a little bit fussy but not too bad....

naptime is the killer!! she thinks shes in there to play or something during the day.
today im just leaving her in there - she is happy and not banging on the door but not sleeping either - do you think i should persist with going in and putting her back in bed or just let her have quiet time?

[ellie&miasmum]

We put our DD into a cot bed when she figured out how to climb out of her cot. I think she was about 19 months. DD would get her sheet and her dummy and off we'd go to bed, I'd tuck her in and close the door. (as that's what we've always done) She was pretty good at it, although there were a few times I'd find her asleep on the floor. She's just turned two and it is just not working. I put her in her bed for her afternoon sleep and she just crys and crys and bangs on the door, for what seems like forever. I go in and calm her down but it doesn't make any difference. She eventually falls asleep on the floor right in front of the door still sobbing in her sleep. Bed time is just as bad. I've tried leaving her door open but we are continually putting her back to bed. Last night it took nearly two hours to get her to go to sleep. I'm going to go insane very soon!!!:banghead: