My New Bed!
The day finally came, Emilia, my 3.5 year old, made the transition from her crib to her new, full bed.
We went back and forth for months- should we move her? Are we waiting too long? How will she do? How do we know when she is ready for a bed?
So to truly prepare for this, we made the plan to gauge her interest and how she was sleeping. We also felt that her maturity had an impact on this move as well.
We finally came to the agreement that when Emilia truly expressed interest and a want for a bed, that is when she would let us know she was ready. We felt that if she understood the need to ask for this, she could handle this big transition too. It turns out, it was the right move for our family!
Together, we picked out her bedding, her bed and spoke about it for weeks leading up to it. How it will feel different from a crib, the expectations of being in a bed now, adding toys to the room to play with since she can get out of the bed herself… We did it all. Something else we did before moving to the bed was dropping her afternoon nap. As much as Emilia loved her afternoon nap, it was impacting her night sleep and we realized we needed to make a change. The moment we made this change, she was exhausted at bedtime and overall sleeping better at night.
I am not a sleep consultant, just a mom of 2 who is passionate about sleep, so this worked for us! I think the combination of expressing interest, the drop of the nap and showing the responsibility to be able to handle this transition was the perfect combination for us.
When getting ready to move to a bed, I also think it’s important to research the items you want and you can prepare your child with literature too.
I decided to go with a full bed for Emilia because I was thinking about longevity. She can use it as she grows up and it will be great for when she has sleepovers in the future too. The mattress we chose was 5 Little Monkeys. It came highly rated by you, but also I loved that it was specifically made for kids. The mattress is EXTREMELY comfortable, comes with a pillow and a mattress pad too!
Image from Pottery Barn Kids
Emilia was thrilled to be a part of the process of picking out her bedding and bed, I could tell she was growing up by the moment. This whole transition was very bittersweet for me as a parent, but I know with this transition comes sweet cuddles in a big bed and I can’t wait for that.
Questions about what we did? Comment below or send me a message!
