Transistion from Cot to Bed - HELP!

[Anise3]

Today we decided to try our 19 month old in her "big room" for the first time. DS is 6 weeks old and will need the cot in another month or so, and we'd like to have her into her new room well before then so she doesn't feel like she's been "kicked out".

She LOVES her big girl room, we've had it set up for months and she loves playing in there. She can get on and off the bed easily now and loves lying in bed reading with me.

So for her daytime nap today we lay in her big bed and read books for an hour until she fell asleep.... she was happy when she woke up and seemed very pleased she slept in it, she kept jumping back up! Tonight I did her normal bedtime routine, made sure she had her blankie, night light, favourite toy & usual bedtime lullabies and tucked her in. No luck... She gets VERY upset when I leave the room and comes straight out again, so I give her a cuddle and pop her back in, and same thing happens again... everything i've read just says to do this over and over but i'm wondering if there's a better way someone may have had success with? With a 6 week old I can't spend hours trying to get her to sleep and DH works away from home so isn't around to help out....HELP!!!

Thanks

[RainbowBrite]

Maybe take it a little slower...try a few more day naps in there so she is totally comfortable in her big girl room and then try then night sleep again.
If she is really getting quite upset and you push her she may build up a resentment and not want to go in there at all...just let her go at her own pace.
I did this and found after a few days to a week I had them in beds for night time too.

[Anise3]

Maybe take it a little slower...try a few more day naps in there so she is totally comfortable in her big girl room and then try then night sleep again.
If she is really getting quite upset and you push her she may build up a resentment and not want to go in there at all...just let her go at her own pace.
I did this and found after a few days to a week I had them in beds for night time too.

Perhaps that's a good idea... I kept reading that once I start not to go back, and we had success today for her nap so I didn't want to undo what we'd done... but I guess night time is a whole other story.

She's asleep now in her big bed, but I had to be in the room with her... poor darling wore herself out I think! Bad Mum award goes to me tonight, I hate seeing her upset because of something i've done. Not too sure what to do tomorrow now

[Ozziehoffy]

Yeah I second trying just days for a bit. Oskar decided one day he wanted to sleep in his room in his big bed but when push came to shove that night... whole different ball game and we just had to let him go and sleep in his cot. He obviously felt secure. Then one day after we moved his room around a bit, bought new sheets and doona cover and made it all so very cool.. he just decided to move from his cot, which was in our room next to my side of the bed, into his own room and big boy bed all in one go and never came back lol. You could also try the mattress on the floor in case she's just feeling unsure about it with no sides? I know she slept there in the day, but for some reason night time is just a different game with them.

[sneakysparkle]

We put the cot in the new room for the first couple of nights - is that something you can do?

Also, I gave DD#1 about 4 weeks to be able to go to sleep on her own in the new room/bed. The first week I sat next to her bed holding her hand till she fell asleep (holding or bfing DD#2 if I had to) the second week I stopped holding her hand, the third week I sat on a chair near the door and then gradually moved out before she was asleep.

All the best!

[Anise3]

We put the cot in the new room for the first couple of nights - is that something you can do?

Also, I gave DD#1 about 4 weeks to be able to go to sleep on her own in the new room/bed. The first week I sat next to her bed holding her hand till she fell asleep (holding or bfing DD#2 if I had to) the second week I stopped holding her hand, the third week I sat on a chair near the door and then gradually moved out before she was asleep.

All the best!

That sounds like a good way to do it actually. Because I was thinking that if I lay next to her every time she'll get used to that and not be able to go to sleep unless i'm holding her. I can imagine though that when I sit on a chair next to the door she'll get out of bed and come over, how did you deal with that part?

One thing that worries me is that is DS's unsettled time. She's used to going to bed with him screaming in the background but I don't know if she'd like being in the same room as him. I'm not comfortable leaving either of them upset by themselves

Unfortunately the cot needs to be taken apart to get out the nursery door, which would be fine if our house wasn't on the market... I have to have the house looking like a display home just in case.

Thanks for all the advice so far (more is welcome!!!)... she did fall asleep in her big bed last night, but only lasted 4 hours before waking up upset, I just ended up putting her back in the cot which was probably a bad move but she just did not want to go back to the big bed.

[melsa31]

We weren't in a hurry when we made the switch so I spent the first few days asking DS where he wanted to sleep. Most times he chose the big bed
We made a big deal of how exciting the new room and big bed were and every time someone came to visit we would get DS to go and show off his bed and they would 'ooh' and 'aah' etc! This really worked and only took a few days for him to happily have both his naps and nighttime sleeps in the new bed. Maybe we were just lucky? Most nights, after a few stories and songs he goes off to sleep by himself. Occasionally I have to sit in there with him but I ALWAYS leave before he falls asleep and he knows the door will be closed if he gets out of bed (mind you, my DS is a little older than your DD). Good luck, it must be hard doing it on your own most of the time.