Breakthrough

Last night Gabe slept on his travel bed. All night. This is serious progress.

This summer we are spending a week at a lake with our family. There is limited space and the kids will need to be able to sleep uncontained. We knew it was time to transition them to toddler beds as well, so I picked up two inflatable kid beds at the store. (They are about a foot longer than a crib mattress and come with a fitted sheet and zip-on sleeping bag.) Best of all, they were only $30 each. Much more affordable than any toddler travel bed we'd seen. So what if they roll out, they're 5 inches from the floor!

So last night we set the beds up in the small alcove of their bedroom and went over the rules. Well, rule, actually. No getting out of bed. As soon as they do they're done for the night. Addie lasted longer than we thought she would, about 10 minutes. She just couldn't resist getting out a book though so she went back to her crib for the night with a promise that we could try again tomorrow.

Not long after Addie was back in her crib she started testing Gabe, trying to make him get up.

"Gabe. What you doing? You in your cars* bed?"
~Addie throws her pacifier to the ground~
"Uh Oh! Gabe, get my paci? Come here. Gimme your hand. Gimme your hand."
Gabe, silent up till now, simply says, "No."
"Gabe? What you doing? You wanna book? Get a book."

Gabe didn't respond again and she must have given up because they were silent for the remainder of the night.

We will try this again at nap time today. It seems to be the best way to get them used to sleeping without rails and not getting out of bed. If they do get up we simply pop them back in their cribs. No converting required until they have it down. As an added bonus they will be very familiar with and used to these beds so when on vacation it will be an added comfort.


*The beds have disney characters on them. One is red with Lightening McQueen from the movie Cars and the other is pink with 3 princesses on it. Not my top choices, but you just can't beat that price!