Starting the cot to bed transition?? Share your journey here.

So..today we started the transition from cot to bed. We have done a couple of day sleeps in the "big girl bed" previously with success but due to circumstances we couldn't keep going.
DD has always been good at self settling so I'm hoping the whole process isn't going to be an overly long one.

DD had her lunch at 12pm, started the wind down process about 12.30pm to be ready for bed for 1pm.
Layed DD in bed, layed next to her while I read a book to her, gave her her bedtime doll and her bottle, kissed her, told her mummy loves you, put her music on and walked out closing the door behind me. All the same routines.

First time up - went in, put her back into bed and sat for a while stroking her hair. She started looking dozy so kissed her and walked out again.
This went on for sometime (about an hour and a half).

After many tears, many up and downs out of bed, much banging on the closed door, a number of times opening the door and DD walking out and 2 hours - she has FINALLY gone to sleep.
Lets hope she sleeps for a while now. Ready to do this all over again tomorrow.

My plan is to do this with day sleeps for the next week while i'm off work and then on days when i'm at home. (DD is in daycare for 4 days a week). We'll keep this up for a month or so then see how we are going.

I felt so horrible sitting outside her door and up the hallway a bit out of sight listening to her crying (not screaming - just a whinging cry) but I know that this is going to be a process that has to be done.


Feel free to join the journey and share your experiences along the way. :)

We've just started transitioning from the cot to ... well I'm gonna sound like a terrible mum but ... to a mattress on the floor!

This was more Jazzy's doing than ours, she sleeps terribley in the cot, and is used to the mattress. I suspect it's either because it smells like us, or because it used to be our bed mattress (that we co-slept on) before we bought our new bed earlier this year so she's used to it.

Anyway, she keeps waking herself up in the cot, she's a night crawler so not sure about an actual bed yet.

We want to buy her a bed (we're going to go single instead of toddler bed as they are the same price anyway) but worried about her night crawling so not really sure. So we're giving the mattress a go, and trying to encourage self-settling more now rather than feeding to sleep. Eeep! The last few nights have been a bit disasterous, with her not going to bed before 8pm since before Christmas, crying-rocking-patting-cuddles and eventually at about 9pm she'll fall asleep exhausted after crawling around the mattress like apuppy dog finding the best place to sleep.

She does so well self-settling at night, she doesn't even cry, just wakes up, has a little chat to herself, finds a new psot to sleep in and goes to sleep. It's so hard to encourage self-settling during the day and at bedtime without tears :wall: so at the moment we are feeding to sleep still. Would love to not be, buts ARGH she's so stubborn!

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We've just started transitioning from the cot to ... well I'm gonna sound like a terrible mum but ... to a mattress on the floor!

This was more Jazzy's doing than ours, she sleeps terribley in the cot, and is used to the mattress. I suspect it's either because it smells like us, or because it used to be our bed mattress (that we co-slept on) before we bought our new bed earlier this year so she's used to it.

Anyway, she keeps waking herself up in the cot, she's a night crawler so not sure about an actual bed yet.

We want to buy her a bed (we're going to go single instead of toddler bed as they are the same price anyway) but worried about her night crawling so not really sure. So we're giving the mattress a go, and trying to encourage self-settling more now rather than feeding to sleep. Eeep! The last few nights have been a bit disasterous, with her not going to bed before 8pm since before Christmas, crying-rocking-patting-cuddles and eventually at about 9pm she'll fall asleep exhausted after crawling around the mattress like apuppy dog finding the best place to sleep.

She does so well self-settling at night, she doesn't even cry, just wakes up, has a little chat to herself, finds a new psot to sleep in and goes to sleep. It's so hard to encourage self-settling during the day and at bedtime without tears :wall: so at the moment we are feeding to sleep still. Would love to not be, buts ARGH she's so stubborn!

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We've gone straight to single bed here. :) I put a rail on... but she just goes to the end and climbs off LOL

It's not the climbing I'm worried about, she literally crawls while she's asleep, so I'm worried she's going to crawl right off the end of the bed?

Lots of pillows around I guess.
Starting off on the floor is a good idea then if shes likely to crawl off.

LOL yep thats why she's there :lol:, she has crawled around and off the double mattress a few times, but jsut crawls back on without a fuss. I wake up and hear her in themonitor but she goes back to sleep, makes my night easier if i don't have to free her legs from cot bars or pick her up and put her back in bed after she's jolted awake crawling off her bed LOL!

I've just posted a similar thread, but we've just started today. I've pulled the rail off the cot as we are going to do a bit of a transition. We are making a fire engine bed that is a single size, but it won't be ready for a bit yet so I thought this was a good was to ease into it! No naps yet but we'll see how we go tonight...

DD has gone to sleep in her big girl bed tonight with no dramas! :)
I wanted to put her in the cot with DH insisted that she goes in the bed so in she goes. No whinging, no fighting, not even out of bed once.

:crossfinger: that she can do this tomorrow too!

Yep same here, no dramas at all, woke up once but had a little milk and went straight back to bed, checked him at 4am and he had climbed off the bed, had a talk with teddy and fallen asleep on the big pile of pillows by the cot lol cutey.

DD is still asleep in her big girl bed!!! Been there all night!!!:dance:
Checked her each time i got up to go to the toilet and she'd moved slightly but no waking, no talking, no getting up nothing!!!!!

Go Jorja!!!!!!!!!!!!! :dance: Well done:clap:

Lets hope her day sleep is just as good today!!!!

Things are going well so far.
Only 10 mins to get to sleep for our day sleep here today in the big bed :) and shes been asleep for just over 1.5 hours :dance:
So proud of my little princess!!

How's Jazz going Leasha?

Hows things there Ella?

:dance: YAY Jen, thats great news!!!


Jazz went down last night about 7.30pm, fell asleep without a feed (we fed first and then moved to her bed and I layed with her), she had a whinge that I wouldn't feed her again, and pulled at my top a few times, but was asleep within a few minutes. Also woke last night crying through the monitor about 2am I think it would have been, but was quiet before I even had a chance to leave the bedroom, and was back asleep without any help and slept until 5am :D
She probably crawled off the bed :doh: but at least she got back on the mattress and went to sleep without a fuss.

Day sleep was ok, slept about 90minutes, didn't go to sleep in her own though. I don't even know how to start that. She does alright when I'm not here but putting her self to sleep for day sleeps is impossible if I'm around.

Yeah going great here. DS fell asleep 5 mins before we got home, so I just carried him to bed, he lifted his head went "hhhmmm" and then went straight back to sleep.
Slept for just over 2 hours which is a little shorter than normal, but hey I'm super happy he's doing so well!
How liong did Jorja end up sleeping for Jen?

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Yeah going great here. DS fell asleep 5 mins before we got home, so I just carried him to bed, he lifted his head went "hhhmmm" and then went straight back to sleep.
Slept for just over 2 hours which is a little shorter than normal, but hey I'm super happy he's doing so well!
How liong did Jorja end up sleeping for Jen?

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Day sleep yesterday - about 40mins
Last night - went down at 7.30 woke at about 7am
Day sleep today - down at about 12.45 and still asleep

Good work on the sleep today, sounds like she's adjusting well!

WOW. What a night!!!!
7.30pm - down for the night, no problems
11pm - awake and wondering out playing with her handbag and necklace, back to bed with a little bit of milk
12pm - awake again, screaming, out of bed - put her back to bed and sit/lay with her. This process goes on for an hour and a half.
1.30am - DH is over the screaming and brings her to bed
2am- after 30mins of fidgeting, talking, playing with our faces, DH puts her in the cot. More screaming, tantrums etc. DD climbs out out of the cot (over the rails) and falls onto the floor :o
I go in and lay in her bed with her until she eventually falls asleep at 4.45 this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :o

I'm exhausted!!!!!!!!! Shes been awake since 7.15 this morning! Does she not understand what sleep is? Shes only had like 2.5hours of it!

Jazz put herself to sleep last night at 8.30pm (well Shel was laying with her, but no booby), and she slept through til 6am...

Oh Jen, I think a big strong coffee is in order for you today :hug: She'll get there :hug: I think we are having it 'easy' because we used to co-sleep on this mattress so she's already used to it. I dread when we try to bring in an actual bed!

Go Jazz! Good work!! :dance:

Yeah we had an eventful night too, nothing like yours, but DS who usually self settles completely demanded with his screams that I sit by him for 45 minutes while he drifted off.

Apart from that we have been ok so far, so lets hope the day sleep goes well as I'm on a juice detox so have very little energy to tackle and fight today. WE just did some gardening and DS screamed cause DF has the lawn mower going and he's scared of the noises! lol

OMG!!! I'm going insane!!!!!!
Shes had 4 hours sleep since midnight last night!!! When is she going to crash??? Maybe i'm doing this too soon!?!?!

I want to scream in frustration at the moment!!! :wall:

Oh we had an awful night too, wouldn't go to sleep till about 4 hours after his usual bedtime and then woke at 3am and I had to sit there for like 45 minutes even though I was about to burst my bladder.
I had the same thought, is this too soon? But then I also thought, now that they know the cot isn't a magical prison they might be more likely to climb out.
Also won't we just have to go through this all again????
I don't know, I think we are all doing incredibly well. Maybe just a little more perserverance?
PS DS didn't have his day sleep yesterday either.... argh

After another 2 relatively good days, DH slept in with her from about 3 one morning we are now having another long night.
Shes so tired and being feral I can't stand to look at her tonight. I wish she'd go to sleep.
:crossfingers:

I hear ya, I didn't get to sleep till 2am last night as he woke up at 9 and decided it was morning time. It's worth it though and just think if we give up we'll jsut have to go through it all again another time...

So...
we seem to have 2 or 3 really good nights in a row then 2 bad nights in a row. Hopefully it'll start to settle soon :)

How are all the other little ones going?

Hmmm we are having not such a good run. Have been up at 9pm, 12pm, and then 3am till 5:45. that's just last night. slept for a while with him in my arms last night but i'm not sure if it's because of the bed as he was really jumpy even in my arms. THinking that we may have teeth coming through.

After 5 nights of almost no sleep, I've jsut done the shopping, have a massive migraine and have no idea how i'm going to be able to stay awake till tonight???

Just wondering how you girls are going?

We are going through the same drama's atm. DS decided a couple of days ago during a tantrum that it was time to climb out of the cot not once but more then twenty times before he eventually calmed down and fell asleep. So we had to change his cot into a toddler bed. He can get in and out by himself easily and he seemed to like it when he 'helped' DH to change his cot into a bed.

A bit of history; DS was a very good self settler/night sleeper from about 12 months onwards, but has been teething since the week before Christmas (3 eyeteeth at once :(). Because of this we spent more time staying in his room to settle him or brought him into our bed in the morning. His teeth have cut, but now he still expects us to stay with him until he settles (sometimes up to an hour and a half or longer). For the sake of all of us we have to get him to self settle again.

So far during the day he has gone down reasonably well and at night eventually after heaps of screaming, even though he did come in bed with us again this morning. BUT.. he falls asleep on de floor instead of in his bed.. so I have to stay awake so I can put him back in his bed. Does anyone else have this problem and what do you do about it? And also; is there light at the end of the tunnel? I really can't keep going like this for much longer; I feel like a zombie. Please put my mind at ease...

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Just wondering how you girls are going?

We are going through the same drama's atm. DS decided a couple of days ago during a tantrum that it was time to climb out of the cot not once but more then twenty times before he eventually calmed down and fell asleep. So we had to change his cot into a toddler bed. He can get in and out by himself easily and he seemed to like it when he 'helped' DH to change his cot into a bed.

A bit of history; DS was a very good self settler/night sleeper from about 12 months onwards, but has been teething since the week before Christmas (3 eyeteeth at once :(). Because of this we spent more time staying in his room to settle him or brought him into our bed in the morning. His teeth have cut, but now he still expects us to stay with him until he settles (sometimes up to an hour and a half or longer). For the sake of all of us we have to get him to self settle again.

So far during the day he has gone down reasonably well and at night eventually after heaps of screaming, even though he did come in bed with us again this morning. BUT.. he falls asleep on de floor instead of in his bed.. so I have to stay awake so I can put him back in his bed. Does anyone else have this problem and what do you do about it? And also; is there light at the end of the tunnel? I really can't keep going like this for much longer; I feel like a zombie. Please put my mind at ease...

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I just leave DD if she falls asleep on the floor. My theory is she will eventually learn that the bed is far more comfortable. She hasn't been doing it as often but still every now and then I find her alseep on the floor.
She usually comes into us about 6am which i can cope with, she'll sunggle for a bit then want to go and play.
In terms of settling, I leave her to cry for a bit then go in and do the routine all over again as many times as need be. Sometimes it takes 10mins, sometimes it takes more that 2 hours, but she is starting to learn that mummy is serious about her staying in her bed and not wondering around and screaming (slowly but surely..)
It will get better just takes some perserverance. And believe me, there are days I have just wanted to give up on it but I keep thinking it will be worth it when I don't have to have issues with our silly cot anymore LOL

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Hmmm we are having not such a good run. Have been up at 9pm, 12pm, and then 3am till 5:45. that's just last night. slept for a while with him in my arms last night but i'm not sure if it's because of the bed as he was really jumpy even in my arms. THinking that we may have teeth coming through.

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Hows things going with Ella?

Hows things with Jazz Leasha?

Things going ok with Jorja, shes settling most nights, some with fights still. Yesterday she slept for 40mins with only 3hours sleep the night before. I have to wonder how they do it!! I want whatever it is they have LOL
Our latest issue is with taking the nappy off at sleep time. I think i'm going to get Gaffa Tape!!!! I put plastic on the bed last night so instead of weeing in the bed, she wet the pillows!!! Argh!!

Sunshine- We're doing ok. Some night are good some are bad... but still going strong on very little sleep lol.

Big news. We officially started TTC#2 yesterday!
How's your pregnancy going?

YAY on the TTC - sending you lots of positive vibes!!!!
Pg going well, just tired :)