We have 26 month old triplets and they have been able to get out of thier cribs for months---we are swithcing them to twin beds this weekend. I am so very nervous that there will be no sleeping in our house!!! Any word of advice?

Michelle

Go buy crib tents and wait until they are 3. That is my advice, LOL. If you don't do that, strip the room, secure the furniture to the walls and lock the closet. Good luck!

Lori

http://yesidohavemyhandsfull.blogspot.com/

Make sure that the room is child proofed and then some.

Expect that there will be a lot of playing even crying late into the night.

We started with twin beds with the bed frames. The frames had to go after they kept jumping up and down and then falling. We just have mattress on the floors.

Curtains had to go.

Wardrobe mirrors went too.

Door had to go too after they kept slamming it.

All outlets had been covered and taped over.

I replaced their ceiling light with a ceiling fan and light combination which stopped them from turning the switch on and off.

Their rooms look like a prison. But its safe.

It took almost a week before we got back to a regular sleeping schedule without the crying, begging, laughing, playing and jumping around.

Forget about nap times. Because it will be a repeat of the night time ritual. But worse (I think).

It almost drove me to drink (more than usual).

Good luck.

I agree 100% please be gracious with yourself and attach crib tents and wait until they are three years old to transition them to beds. If you are going to transition them anyways, don't put anything else in the room except three twin mattresses on the floor to start with. I feel very strongly about crib tents to give parents of multiples sanity and to provide a safe sleeping environment for toddlers and to ensure that they get the sleep that they need. Here is a link to my post if you are interested.

http://tripletmomplusone.blogspot.com/2011/09/busy-moms-and-multiple-moms-attach-crib.html

If you still would like to transition Peapods help with this. If they will not stay in their beds and go to sleep you can put a peapod on their mattress that is on the floor and safety pin the zippers together. They are also fantastic travel beds for toddlers and young kids. A link to my article on Peapods is below.

http://tripletmomplusone.blogspot.com/2011/09/travel-baby-bed-and-travel-toddler.html

Good Luck with whatever you decide!

Hollie

Mom to BBG Triplets born at 29 weeks. They are almost four years old and we have a twenty-two month old baby boy.

Hollie

http://www.tripletmomplusone.blogspot.com/

I agree with the two PP's, crib tents. A little bit of expense (though we found one on craigslist for cheap), but so worth it. No problems with getting them to stay put. My son actually liked his. One daughter didn't need one because she wasn't a climber. My other daughter didn't like hers, but we had a deal that we'd keep it unzipped unless she climbed out, then it got zipped for punishment (she only climbed a couple times then we never had to zip it anymore).

The year between 2 and 3, in my experience, gets to be a harder one for napping. They need the nap, but are not quite as tired for it as before. Or maybe they nap easily, but then they are not quite as tired at bedtime. To me that is a terrible time to switch to a toddler or twin bed--then they will just get up when you want them to be trying to go to sleep.

On the flipside, we found that it was great timing to switch to toddler beds when they were dropping the afternoon nap (between 3 and 3-1/2, for us). No worries about keeping them in bed for nap (we switched to video "rest" time at that point), and at bedtime they were so extremely tired that they had no energy to pop back out of bed.

That's what worked for us... good luck!

Mary (41) happily married to Case (45) since 7/2000

Stay-at-home mom to Madelyn Anne, born 10/31/04

and GBG triplets: Laura Catherine (4 lb 8 oz), Andrew William (4 lb 9 oz) and Elise Nicole (4 lb 7 oz) born 3/15/07 at 34w 1d

Crib tents if you want sleep. We switched ours at 3 1/2 to twin beds (we tried toddler beds but it didn't work all that well) and it has been a bit of a challenge. We went through 6 crib tents, so I'd start as soon as you can (the earlier they're used to it, the less they complain about it depending on your DC). Most of ours were due to one DC (yes, she is a climber) hanging upside down from the frame inside the tent (we had IIs)) and the other two using cars (or their fingers) to trash the netting or de-thread the seams (at least I know they're imaginative). Good luck!

Oooooohhhhhhh!!!!! I cannot wait until me hubby gets home so he can read all of these reponse! He is the one pushing for beds---I would keep them in cribs until college! LOL!

Thank you all for your honest advice---will see how it goes...

Michelle

I have to agree with everyone else.......get crib tents. My trio turned 3 in June and the only one in a twin bed is my daughter. The boys are still in cribs with the crib tents and love them. My daughter never had/needed a crib tent, in fact she waits for me to come get her each morning out of her bed. She does that at nap time also. Right now they all still nap at least 2 hours each afternoon. I know the boys will play once they are moved to twin beds which we are planning to do after Christmas, but for now I am loving my quiet afternoons.

Good Luck with your decision.

Stacey

Also agree with crib tents. We switched to toddler beds at almost 4...and we wished we could have waited longer! It took quite a while until they went to sleep reasonably, and they still don't go to sleep as well as they used to...almost 6m later.

I agree with the others, you will get at least another year to 18m of napping and sleep with them. The extra sleep and sanity is well worth the price of the tents.


Susan

Parent to GGG born 31 weeks 4 days 4/26/07




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