Moving to a toddler bed

As some of you who are regular readers will know we moved Mia into a toddler bed back in January when she was only 14 months old. This was not a particularly well thought out decision it was kind of just what we knew would work best when transitioning Mia from cosleeping to her own room. Since we had chosen to cosleep with Mia she was used to sleeping in a bed. There had been times when we had transitioned her into her cot in our room and then into our small back bedroom back in August but it had only worked for a short time. Unfortunately there is a large building project going on at the back of our house and this affected her sleeping in that room as they would start work at dawn until dusk. Obviously meaning she couldn't nap in there etc. Sadly she never really took to the cot either and just didn't seem to enjoy being in there. 

We did take a lot of thought into her bedroom and making it a place she would want to be. Remember we were not just transitioning to a toddler bed but also to a brand new room and her no longer co sleeping! That's a lot of transitioning all in one go!! I actually feel it needed to be done in one hit though, Mia was a toddler now and needed her space as did we. 

We had bought a bed guard for our bed for when she slept with us and I put this on her toddler bed. The bed guard is by Tomy and I bought it from Argos. It's definitely one of our ultimate baby buys. We have used it since the day she was about a week old!! I know they say 18months plus but I rolled a small muslin cloth and wedged it between the guard and the matress to stop her limbs getting caught.

We are fortunate to have a spare bedroom right next to Mia's new room and so at the moment Adam and I have moved up there to sleep while she's still getting used to her room. I was hoping to of moved back to our room by now but in February/March she's had the chicken pox, a sickness bug and a really heavy cold and chesty cough - which we are still getting over now a week later! So the transitions been a little slow! 

The moving into the toddler bed itself hasn't been too bad. We always do exactly the same routine which I think os key. We read 2 stories, one of which always stays the same and is the one we read before he light goes out called Goodnight Moon. The other I change each night. We also turn on her fisher price soothe and glow seahorse while I'm getting her changed for bed as well. I then after the stories and lights out sit next to her bed and turn my back to her. We also let her play in her room a lot so she gets used to the surroundings. Another thing which for us has helped is putting Mia in a sleep sack. She hated these in our bed and always got too hot but in her own bed they are perfect for keeping her warm. She moves around a lot in the night so she was waking constantly as she had kicked all the blanket off but now she can't do that!