My kids are turning 2 so I'm about to convert their cribs to big kid beds next weekend. (They're all climbing.) But I'm wondering if they will ever sleep again or if I should consider separating them?
Here's the issue, I plan to separate Lillie into her own room from the boys in a couple of years. But right now they're in a big room and they only use it for sleeping and it doesn’t make sense to separate them yet. However, Sam lately has been throwing MASSIVE temper fits (such that I'm going to ask our doc about it, it can't be okay to be throwing SUCH angry temper fits all the time) and screams at the top of his lungs at night making it difficult for others to sleep. Plus, Sam and Lillie don't need as much sleep as Will who needs LOTS of sleep. So if I were going to separate them, it seems that I'd either pull out Will so he can get more sleep or Sam b/c he's such a fit thrower, BUT I don't want to have to decorate the guest room I would pull Sam or Will into b/c that (I hope) will ultimately be Lillie's room but she is the least logical one to pull out b/c she's super adaptable right now (and I hate to have a kid in a beige room – I realize this is my issue). I know them being out of cribs is going to exacerbate the current problems. Has anyone dealt w/this who has mixed gender triplets? Has anyone found a way to get the kids to sleep after the transition? (Oh - and we're planning on pulling everything out of the room but the cribs & gating the room so they can't escape.)

Crib tents have been our saving grace. I would highly recommend keeping them all in their cribs until they are thee years old. Crib Tents are so awesome and will help you keep them in there another year and give you more time to think about separating them or not and painting a room if you want to:)

http://tripletmomplusone.blogspot.com/

Mom to BBG Triplets and singleton boy. Charlie, Jake and Kaylee are three years old and Sam is one.

Below is a link to my post on why we could not have lived without crib tents!

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

http://tripletmomplusone.blogspot.com/

Mom to BBG Triplets and singleton boy. Charlie, Jake and Kaylee are three years old and Sam is one.

I apologize for it being offensive that I put a link instead of copy and pasting my answer. My intentions are clearly to help other moms of multiples based on my experience of what I have learned the long way many times, hoping to help other moms not have to learn the long way like I did. I have written a moderator to understand the best way to try and share my thoughts for whatever they are worth on this forum. So here it is:

When we went to Kings Dominion this past summer, our triplets knew just what to do for the bumper car ride because they have been doing just that in their cribs since they were very little, bumper cars with their cribs.

Bumper car cribs is a game our triplets played all of the time before they fell asleep and when they woke up. We first witnessed this game happening when we heard a lot of wall banging over the monitor. We had no idea what was happening but knew no one was hurt because of the squeals of joy coming through the monitor. When we opened the door, we witnessed them playing bumper cars with their cribs. So this is when we had to move the cribs a couple feet away from the wall and as far apart from each other as we could.

Their nursery parties have progressed from cooing and babbling while looking at each other through the jail like bars of their crib. Next came the crib bumper car game, and then the jumping, laughing, singing and dancing became the norm for their parties. Thankfully, during this phase of partying we had already attached the crib tents. Our daredevil son brought their parties to a new level when he began doing hand stands with his feet touching the top of the tent over his crib. It didn’t take long for his brother and sister to follow suit. Their cribs were now their personal moon bounce and tumbling gym. You would have thought that their crib mattresses were actually trampolines. Good thing they were contained with crib tents for these nursery parties or they might have seriously hurt themselves and each other.

The biggest thing I’m always protecting them against is each other. When they were little I would have to look at all of their toys and ask myself, “Can they use this toy as a weapon against each other?” It was a big job keeping them from biting each other; it made for a lot of fun times when I wasn’t able to keep them from doing this. All I’ll say is even in this past year after very few biting incidents for a year or so, out of nowhere one of our boys bit the other one in the chest to the point that he will probably forever have a bite scar and needed antibiotics in order for it to finally heal a month later.

They are one of the biggest dangers to each other. Just last week our youngest triplet threw his bat mobile at our 22 month old. This is my first experience with blood everywhere from an injury. I called my husband panicked while yelling at our son who threw the bat mobile at our baby. I was not handling the situation well. My husband right away responded to my hysteria on the phone and said he was leaving work right away to come home. Then I managed to take a breath, remembered what I have heard about heads bleeding a lot and carried our baby over to the sink. I performed my go to move for when they smear pancake syrup all over the heads and got the sink sprayer going, soaking his head. Then I could clearly see the tiny cut on his head. I called my husband back and explained it wasn’t as bad as I initially thought and that he didn’t need to come home. Of course this all had transpired as we were walking up the stairs to bed. So finally I was able to put our triplets down for the night and kept our baby up with me for a few hours to make sure he was okay. Thankfully he was.

Can you imagine what would have been happening in their bedroom if we had decided to transition them to big kid beds at two years old? I’m not sure exactly, but I do know it would have involved trips to the emergency room. The crib tents have been extremely helpful in keeping the triplets safe from hurting each other and themselves.

Thankfully we were able to hold off on transitioning them to big kid beds until they were three years old not only for their safety but our sanity as well. A couple of months after our triplets turned three we began phase one of transitioning them to big kid beds. We are now in phase three of the transition. I will write about this experience in another post. I will just say that currently, seven months later, for both nap time and bed time, we use a combination of bribing, rewarding and threatening in order to keep them in their beds and to be quiet and go to sleep.

I’ll use today as an example. They did take a three hour nap this afternoon, but only after many trips upstairs to their room first saying that they could have pumpkin pie after dinner tonight if they would please be quiet and take a nap. Our little girl was asleep within the first ten minutes of nap time. For the boys I then threatened to take away their lovies, next I took away their favorite lovies. Now two out of three were asleep and for the last one I went back to pumpkin pie bribery in addition to threatening to take away one of his costumes. Finally they all were asleep.

Are you exhausted reading that? Me too, my point is, parents of multiples do yourselves a favor and keep your kids safe from each other and put crib tents on their cribs and keep them in them until they are at least three years old.

I know I have said it is the little things that make the biggest difference. Well the crib tent may be a little thing, but it gives you another entire year before you would need to make the transition to big kid beds and all that comes with that transition for you and for them.

http://tripletmomplusone.blogspot.com/

Mom to BBG Triplets and singleton boy. Charlie, Jake and Kaylee are three years old and Sam is one.

Our kids will be 2 next month, and we've decided to keep them in their cribs with crib tents for as long as we can. They share a room, but we don't have the mixed gender issue to consider.

One can climb out, and we placed a crib tent on her bed a few weeks ago. She's adjusted well to it and the other two don't really care that their sister has a tent and they don't.

Perhaps it would be worth trying a tent before converting cribs?

We have 1 who needs less sleep, one who is somewhere in the middle, and another who needs a ton of sleep. I've resorted to putting more books and "safe" toys in the crib of the child who sleeps less. She plays longer before falling asleep, and she doesn't wake the others when she wakes up.

Could Sam be cutting his 2-year molars? Each frustration has turned into an EPIC meltdown in our household until I noticed the swollen gums.

One of my girls is more sensitive to pretty much everything and throws very intense tantrums. An OT figured out she has sensory issues. Google "sensory defensive" and see if any of that resonates. If it does, you could ask for an OT eval in addition to speaking to your ped. Sometimes swinging or rocking helps kids calm down and feel more "organized." Since we've built that into their activity time on a regular basis, things are going much better.

Hate to chime in with the same answer as the PP's which may not be helpful if you've already made your decision... but I also vote for cribs w/crib tents until they are 3-plus. Some kids seems to do well (according to my singleton moms) in toddler/single beds at an early age, but I think that having triplets really complicates things. I wanted to have mine contained, to know that they would stay where I put them at nap and bedtime.

Sleep can get tricky around 2-1/2 years of age, in our family's experience, because the child is not quite so tired for naptime and bedtime (so they don't go down as easily) but is not really ready to drop the nap yet. If you move to beds at this point I am afraid you will have a real problem maintaining the nap, or getting them to stay in bed when you put them there for nap/bedtime.

We moved to toddler beds when the nap was being dropped, it really was a perfect time because then we didn't have to battle with staying in the toddler bed at naptime, and at bedtime (having newly dropped their nap) they were so tired they didn't have the energy to get out of bed.

That is my advice. Hope it all works out for you whatever you choose!

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