At over two and a half years old Little E was still sleeping in her cot. We knew it was time to start thinking about moving into a toddler bed but with Ethan’s poor sleeping habits we put this milestone off. We decided it was time to tackle our fear when we realised we were starting to hold her back.
We decided that we would tackle this milestone during the Easter holidays. Darren even booked some time off in preparation for the possible disruption this move could cause. As Little E is quite an independent little lady I decided that we should include her in this change. I started telling her about how she is a big girl and would need a big girl bed soon. When I ordered her bed I showed her what we were choosing and ordering on the internet. I did think about getting her Peppa Pig bedding but found some bedding with pink hearts. She has already informed us that they are Peppa Pig hearts.
Both children were very excited when the big girl bed was delivered, its arrival had become a bit of an event for them. Ethan was very excited about this new milestone in his sister’s life. When the bed was built both children rushed to see it.
The first real hurdle we had to overcome was getting Little E used to a duvet. She has been used to the baby sleeping bags and she had protested when I tried to replace this with her cot duvet in warmer weather. When Little E put her new bed to the test she wouldn’t let us put her new pink heart duvet on her. Ethan took charge of the situation and jumped into the bed covering himself with the duvet. This one movement was enough to convince Little E that it was fine to use her new duvet. Ethan’s way of going about things had really helped his little sister overcome her duvet fear.
With the excitement of the new toddler bed Ethan even came upstairs to help put his sister to bed that first night. We all said goodnight to Little E and left her ‘reading’ a book. We were prepared for that first night to be quite interesting when Little E worked out the freedom she had without the cot bars. She actually surprised us all and never got out of her toddler bed once. She was even OK the next day when she had to have her afternoon nap, she really made this transition look so easy.
Little E has been in her new toddler bed for just under a month now. She has slowly worked out her freedom during her afternoon naps but so far she is still staying in her little bed during the night. Lets hope that doesn’t change anytime soon.
