A few weeks ago, we transitioned Chloe to a twin bed.  The timing was a little tricky. We originally wanted to reuse her crib/toddler bed in the nursery, but the baby’s room is considerably smaller and we didn’t want to make her feel like she was giving her bed to the baby. At the same time we weren’t really sure if we were completely ready to move Chloe to a twin bed. We transitioned her to a toddler bed this past February at 28 months old, and it went so smoothly.

We went to Babies R’ Us to look at smaller cribs for the baby, and Chloe realized that her toddler bed was actually a crib that we’d converted. Cue a major meltdown in the middle of BRU with my kid screaming that she was a big girl and only babies sleep in cribs. It had been a long time since we’d been in a Babies R’ Us, so we were surprised to see that they had twin bed sets for sale. Chloe found one, decided that she had to have it, and refused to sleep in her toddler bed any longer.

She slept in our bed for two weeks.  She would not go near her toddler bed any longer. It only worsened when our crib was delivered and my husband put it together. Chloe helped him assemble it and when they were done, she said that cribs were for babies and that she was too big for a baby bed. She kept asking for a princess bed — the one that she saw at BRU. Since we’d have to transition her to a twin bed soon anyway, we ordered it. It took a week to come in, and in that time frame Chloe still wouldn’t sleep in her toddler bed. The weekend her bed set came in, my husband removed the carpeting from her room and put in wood flooring.  This is the same weekend we had to get rid of all the monsters, so not only did she get new flooring and new furniture, we got rid of all the icky monsters and dragons that occupied her space.  It was a pretty big weekend for her.

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see ya, baby bed!

My husband was working weird hours the week we got her bed, so we picked it up on a Thursday instead of over the weekend. I was worried that we wouldn’t want to mess with this transition on a weekday, but we gave it a shot.  Earlier that afternoon, Chloe and I went to Target.  She picked out her own sheets and blankets, and a new stuffed animal pillow to complete the look she wanted.  She was so excited and wouldn’t let go of the sheet set or the princess swan. That evening we picked up her bed, then ran to the mattress store to pick out a mattress. This was so exciting for her.  She couldn’t believe we wanted her to lay on all the mattresses and pick one out. She had to pretend to sleep on all of them to get the full effect.

This is my favorite, mom!

Now that we had her new bedroom set and mattress, we could go home and assemble!  I was nervous since it’d been a long day without a nap, and a brand new bed, but she couldn’t wait to get into her new princess bed. She hopped under the covers, pulled them up around her, and giggled.  She told my husband — no boys allowed in the princess bed! Then she told me good night and went to sleep.

Sometimes, I don’t know who my kid is.

checking out her new bed and helping put on the new covers!

It’s been smooth sailing since that night.  She doesn’t have any trouble getting into her bed, and sleeps through the night. Realizing that her toddler bed was a crib set this change into motion, and we think that letting her be a huge part of this process contributed to the ease and success of her transition.

When did you transition to a twin bed?  How did it go?