WALKER'S BIG BOY Bedroom Transition
As I was preparing to write this article, I was reading through my last blog post on kid transitions. Honestly it’s funny because Capri and Walker have been SO different in SO many ways, including transitions. Capri took to transitions a lot easier, and just in general, things went more smoothly with her. I’m not sure if it’s the girl vs. boy thing or if they’re just very different kids.
One thing we’ve done similarly with both kids is handle transitions on the earlier side (according to most people). With Capri, she felt more moldable, and with Walker, we’ve almost been forced to do transitions earlier. For example, our nanny thought he was ready to potty train early, so we’ve been doing that even though he’s only 2. He’s actually been ready for that transition and it’s been decently easy.
Another thing we were forced to do earlier than expected was the shift to a big boy bed. Walker started climbing out of his crib around his 2nd birthday which isn’t something Capri ever did. At first, we weren’t worried because he’d usually climb out and then sleep on the floor or his daybed, but then he started getting into sh*t AND he was doing it so often that it became a safety hazard. They say you’re supposed to transition to a big kid bed once they start climbing out of their crib, so we didn’t have a choice.
We handled the transition similarly to Capri. We let him pick out a bed, got him excited about his cowboy sheets, and hyped up his new ‘big boy room’ in general. We also put a baby gate on his door since he is so physical and we didn’t want to deal with the worry of him roaming the house during nap / bedtime. We set boundaries on when he can get up with his Hatch sound machine / light, and the first few nights went well.
It was night 3 or 4 where shit hit the fan. He got up no less than 100x, got into his bathroom and destroyed it, and it was a sleepless night for all.
After that, we started giving him rewards for staying in his bed until the Hatch changed colors, and that seemed to work. It was definitely more challenging than Capri but he eventually got his nighttime sleep. He’s now boycotting naps half of the time so that’s our current struggle.
Since I know you guys are interested in what we have in his room, I’ll break it down here:
+ Bed: This bed can be hard for adults to get in / out of since it’s so low, but safety-wise, we love it. I also appreciate that it feels like a kid’s bed and is nice looking at the same time.
+ Bumpers: Walker is a WILD sleeper so these have been great. They do move around slightly but I just adjust them when making his bed – it takes two seconds.
+ Hatch: Sound machine and night light in one. You can program it to change colors / sound at a certain time, so we have settings for sleep & wake.
+ Sheets, duvet & duvet cover: Kids bedding but make it aesthetic.
+ Waterproof mattress pad: A must with potty training.
+ Daybed: I have several of these throughout the house and we love them all. Walker actually chooses to nap on this sometimes, it’s so comfortable.
+ Baby gate: I plan on keeping this on his door until he’s 15 LOL.
+ Rug: Lots of questions on this and it’s unfortunately old Rugs USA.
+ Monitor: This lets us see Capri and Walker’s rooms at the same time which was hard to find in a monitor.