From Cot To Bed

Bree is moving from sleeping in a cot to a bed soon. Until the new bed arrives, she sleeps in her cot with one side removed by her dad. There has been no problem so far. She has not fallen off her bed. In fact she has been enjoying the freedom of getting out of bed on her own in the morning. To prevent Bree from getting into mischief (like eating toothpaste in the bathroom), her parents have installed a safety gate across her bedroom doorway to keep her within her own bedroom if she gets up earlier than her parents. Instead of being trapped behind bars in the cot crying to be lifted out, Bree is now able to move around to play with her toys or read books in the room.

Before installing the safety gate, Bree used to wander out of her room. There is another safety gate at the top of the stairs to prevent her from falling down the stairs. One afternoon, she got up from her nap and ended up crying in the bathroom. We believed that she had wanted to do wee but had somehow gotten disoriented. With the installation of the safety gate, Bree is now unable to access her potty when she needs to. Since she is now nappy-free for her afternoon naps, we place her potty chair on a bathmat (with rubber backing) in the same corner of her bedroom. The potty stays in her room only during her afternoon naps. It is in her bathroom the rest of the time. At night, Bree is still going to bed wearing a nappy. I think she might be doing that for a while yet. Her mum has been wondering if the potty should be placed in her bedroom every night as well. I told her to start doing it if Bree starts to take off her nappy when she gets up in the morning. Some toddlers find the nappy tabs irresistible. They pull them and before they realise their actions, the nappy is off. From there, some may dabble in a little bit of ‘Poo Art’.

Bree has been sleeping in the cot with one side removed for a couple of months or more now. Her mum did try to order a bed from IKEA a while ago but it was out of stock. She also tried to order another bed from a bedroom specialist store but they never got back to her for some reason. She said that she is happy that they never call back because she changed her mind soon after calling them. Bree’s parents agreed that they are not going to buy a junior bed, preferring to buy a single sized bed that Bree could use for years. Bree’s dad prefers a bed that is quite low to the ground, fearing that his little girl might hurt herself if she falls out of the bed. Bree’s mum prefers a high bed like the one she had as a child. Lately, the parents have been making changes and introducing new things around the house to accommodate the growing toddler. They have begun to talk about getting a bed for Bree again. If it all goes smoothly, Bree could be sleeping in a ‘big bed’ around Christmas time.