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I'm a twenty-nine year old Army wife currently living near a large Army post. I have an unhealthy obsession with Dr. Pepper, the Internet, cloth diapers, and ridiculous TV shows. I'm a stay at home mom to two beautiful daughters, AJ and Amelia. We also have a 6 year old beagle named Abby who is as dumb as a box of rocks.
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Friday, January 6, 2012

Going All Mommy Blog For a Minute....

I figured I'd give you all some fair warning that today's post, along with yesterday's are going to throw me fully into the realm of the mommy blogger. If that bores you, then consider yourself warned and move along. I'll be back to my regularly scheduled blogging next week.

With AJ's second birthday rapidly approaching (more on that later) I've been thinking about several things that come along with growing up, namely potty training and moving her into a big-girl bed.

I'm thinking that we won't potty train until this summer when she can be pants-less/naked for most of the day without getting chilly. She isn't really ready yet, although she has started to sit (fully clothed) on her potty when I go to the bathroom. She doesn't yet tell me when she "goes" in her diaper and she doesn't seem bothered at all to be sitting in a wet diaper. Since we use cloth diapers, they are actually wet, as opposed to disposables, which wick the moisture away from the skin.

I know that typically when a kid is potty-trained they need to be able to get out of bed in the middle of the night and go potty if they have to.

With that being said, I don't need to switch her to a big-girl bed until we potty train, but I think I'd like to get her accustomed to sleeping in a real bed for a few weeks (at least) before we start with the hard-core potty training. I anticipate the switch being difficult (mostly for me) because I have a feeling that she is going to get in and out of bed a lot before falling asleep at night. I also am not sure if I should be closing her bedroom door when we switch her to the big bed or if I should leave it open?

Any experienced mamas have advice for me? Right now we close her door completely and keep our door closed as well. She has a lot of cabinets and drawers in her room that she likes to play with and I'm nervous that she will destroy her room if I shut her in there and just hope she goes to sleep.

On the other hand, we have a great bed-time routine down. We give her a bath, get her in jammies and then read a book and put her to bed. I leave the room while she is still awake and she is usually quiet until she falls asleep, but occasionally she cries or whines for a few minutes before going to sleep. When I switch her, do I just continue with the same routine and put her in the bed and leave or should I stay with her? She is so used to us not being with her when she sleeps that I don't think she'll fall asleep if I stay in the room with her, she thinks its a game.

Finally, we have a twin bed that we're planning to use for her room eventually, but should I consider buying a toddler bed to make the transition, or will I just be setting myself up for another whole struggle to transition from the toddler bed to the twin bed? What worked for your kiddos?

HELP!

5 comments:

  1. I know this is so random since I don't actually "have" a child. But I do have a "live in nephew" that we JUST did this with.

    We just transitioned A to his toddler bed and my Mom was so nervous about it for the same reasons - but like you, we had a great bedtime routine - and honestly there hasn't been a single issue. We did wait until he was nearly 3 - but it was just because we had such a good thing going with how easily he slept in the crib we didn't want to rock the boat.

    As for the toddler vs big girl bed - I know I just said we put A in a toddler bed - but my personal preference is to go straight to a twin. :) *I* don't see the point in transitioning twice...and I also know several kids who really didn't like their toddler bed because of how low it was to the ground.

    She's growing up so much!! I can't believe it!

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  2. I would just use the bed you have instead of getting a toddler bed. Let her help pick out bedding for it (you could give her 2 choices of approved-by-you bedding) to make it more fun so she will want to be in her bed. If she is used to the door being closed, close it. Just child-proof everything first :) We had a lot of going in and putting her back to bed when we switched to a big girl bed. We still have to on occasion (naptime is the WORST!) Do you have a rail for the bed? My kiddo rolled off the converted crib so many times we switched it out for her bunk beds that had a rail. And when you start overnight potty training (or actually, it is probably handy in case of sickness) get several cheap sheets and the plastic fitted sheets and layer them. It will make middle of the night accidents so much easier (or naptime accidents.. we still do a pull-up at night... I am scared to take it off at night because she sleeps in bed with me a LOT and I don't want to sleep on a rubber sheet. lol)

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  3. We also have a twin bed, but are using the toddler bed until she is a bit older. We installed a baby gate at her door and totally baby proofed her room (she was 14 months when we put her in a toddler bed because he figured out early how to climb out). That way we weren't shutting her in but she was contained in there. Now we usually shut the door and the gate, and then when she is asleep open the door so we can hear her if she needs us. I wish I had good advice on potty training...we are still working on it!

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  4. You can always put the twin mattress on the floor for little while so she can get use to it, and isn't so far off the ground and then you don't need to buy another bed. She doesn't need to be in a big girl bed to start potty training tho. And on potty training I would wait till she is ready and it will go so smoothly. And the crib leave her in as long as you can then it will make that go well too. I would put baby proof the room and put a gate up too and do the same routine that you do now, don't change things if you don't have to and if she gets out don't talk to her just carry her right back to her bed and leave. Repeat as many times as you need, it is tough but it works just takes time!

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  5. We switched G to a toddler bed when we moved back to the states about 4 months ago. We gave it a little while for her to get used to being in her "big girl bed" before we started potty training. She is pretty much potty trained for day time. The only trainers she would not pee or poop in were the imve vimse trainers. She'd pee and poop in her diapers AND big girl panties, but as soon as we put one of those trainers on her, she kept telling us when she had to go potty. Sometimes she's dry when she wakes up and sometimes she has a full diaper, but she never wakes up in the night so we just do diapers at night. :)

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I'd love to know what you think...