Thursday 24 January 2013

The big girl bed

We decorated Mia's bedroom over Christmas, and so it seemed natural to move her from her cot to a proper bed. We ordered the same one that we bought for Harry - a single bed which lifts up to provide storage underneath. It's a full size single but it's aimed at children so it's not too high. We also spent a fortune on bedding. I feel a bit bad because Harry has cheap Tesco sheets, but we have splashed out a bit more for Mia and gone mad on some gorgeous elephant bedding from John Lewis - even throwing in a matching cushion impulse buy which is very unlike us! Hopefully it will last her though - I know that I used my first child bedding right up until I left home!

We do have one problem though. We perhaps didn't realise at the time how easy Harry's transition to a bed was. Well, he wasn't a great sleeper anyway, and he certainly didn't sleep any worse in the bed. When he woke up he would just lie there screaming, and it took him months to get out of bed by himself. Mia worked it out immediately, and putting her in bed and closing the door is followed immediately by pattering footsteps across the room and whimpering at the door.

We haven't worked out a strategy yet. We are just going back in and returning her to bed and after a few tries she is staying there and going to sleep. I'm a bit worried as to where we are heading though - I have visions of evenings ahead where we spend the entire evening returning her to bed before collapsing exhausted into bed ourselves. Then even worse, repeating this throughout the night.

I'd love to hear any tips that you might have about persuading young toddlers to stay in bed once you put them there!

First bedding for little girl

12 comments:

  1. Emily's Big Girl Bed is being put up this weekend - she is very excited! Need to go and get some bedding tomorrow though. I have no advice on keeping children in bed I'm afraid as until a year or so ago Laura wouldn't even get out of bed in the morning, she'd just lie there shouting until someone came and got her. And Emily won't be able to climb out of her bed. Here's hoping she doesn't fall out (but her cot is definitely getting too small).

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    1. Good luck! Harry wouldn't get out of bed himself either, he would just lie there shouting Mummy. I think it was when he was tall enough to open the door himself that he used to jump out and come running into our room.

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    2. Nowadays I have trouble getting Laura out of bed at all. Yesterday she said 'But Mummy, I'm TIRED in the mornings.' Aren't we all, dear.

      I love Mia's sheets BTW. Emily is getting Peppa Pig.

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  2. I LOVE that bedding, cuteness! :) x

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  3. It took us a week to convince our daughter to stay in bed. On the first night she got up 18 times between 2am and 4am! All we did was silently take her back to bed and leave her. No talking, no kisses, no cuddles, no attention. It took her a week to realise it wasn't much fun and stayed in bed. In the morning a groclock helped. When she knew what time she was allowed to come in to our room it helped her stay in hers until a sensible hour.

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    1. Wow, I don't think that even our worst nights have been that bad! We have a Groclock for Harry and it's wonderful, he used to get up at 5am and it really changed our lives. In fact we've just ordered a second one for Mia, although I think we'll hold off for a few months yet until she's old enough to get the hang of it.

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    2. I think that is perfect advice, it probably won't take long for her to get the message.

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  4. With Alex it took around 2 weeks of evenings putting him back to bed, and possibly a few times in the night. We did similar to the above by not talking much etc. Have a few friends who swear by the gro clock. Good luck!

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    1. At least it sounds like it won't go on forever. It just took us about 8 goes to get her down to sleep, I suppose that's not too bad!

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  5. Mia's sheet is just cuteness all over, I'm starting to love elephants! My girl loved her new sheets on her FIRST NIGHT, and the rest is history.

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