The Toddler Bed

A couple of weeks ago, we finally got Marley a toddler bed. She probably would have been cool with sleeping in the crib for a lot longer, but Kenzie is about to outgrow the pack-n-play.... 

Over Thanksgiving break, Jason had time to help me put it together and then the adventure began. We moved the baby monitor back into Marley's room, so we could watch her and make sure she stayed in bed. 

For our first attempt, I wanted her to try sleeping in the bed for naptime so she could have light to see the room. She's a pretty wild sleeper, so that helped her not fall out of bed, and she didn't mind being in a new spot. 

That first time she did really well. I watched her on the monitor, and she stayed in bed and fell asleep after not too long. Later that night she lasted 10 minutes and then started crying. I went in and tried to comfort her, but she really didn't want to stay in the bed and asked to sleep in the crib. 

After that, Marley did fine and only ended up sleeping in the crib one more time (and that was because I think she had a bad dream and woke up inconsolably crying). 

(asleep underneath her pillow. Silly Kid!)

Then we experienced all the standard toddler behavior. She tried to open the door a few times, and eventually succeeded. Luckily that was when we were still awake, and there is now a toddler lock on the inside of her door. 

Marley also ended up falling asleep on the floor a lot. I decided that I wasn't going to go into her room if I couldn't see her in bed on the monitor. As long as she wasn't crying or messing around, I let her be. She doesn't do it as much anymore, and I think she was just exploring her room. There are zero things to play with in there, so she found out its pretty boring and the bed is more comfortable. 

I can tell she really loves her bed now, and she likes having more room to spread out. Our favorite thing to do is look on the monitor to see how she fell asleep. Its always hilarious! 

Next step is to get Kenzie sleeping in the crib and have these girls sharing a room. I'm super nervous, because Marley takes awhile to fall asleep and usually ends up singing songs or talking to herself. And Kenzie kicks her legs really loudly when she's in bed, so they will definitely need to get used to each other. 

Anytime you change your kids routine the first couple days are always rough, but one thing we have going for us is that both girls love their nighttime sleep. I need to just suck it up and do it. I think I'll wait till Jason is done with finals this week and maybe give it a try. 

Wish me luck!!