Our house has 3 bedrooms on the main floor: the first being the master, then one right across from our master bedroom, & the other is our front room (multi-functioning that could be an office or bedroom). We chose to keep the room by our bedroom as the baby nursery and bumped Liv into the front room. It was SO nice to only have a few steps to have to walk in the middle of the night to nurse Livi, since we didn't use a bassinet and just put her straight in her crib in her own room, and I definitely want to do that again with this new babe.
Anyway, the process of transitioning Livi into the front room and a toddler bed has two stages -- first moving her into the new room, staying in her crib for a month.. second, taking the crib out and replacing it with the toddler bed. My pediatrician told me those parameters will help her adjust smoothly.. rather than change her into a new room and a new bed all at once.
So we put miss Olive in the front room with a similar set up to her old room. Since I'm not wanting to re-buy lots of new furniture either, we bought gender neutral colors and styles for everything and then accessorize to add fun pops of color & make them personal. So the crib will be used for all of our babies and hopefully so will the changing station/dresser and rocking chair.
IKEA yet again had exactly what we needed so Micah set to work putting together Olive's new dresser.
Her new room looked a bit blah in comparison to the fun bright coral stripes in her nursery unfortunately. Still deciding what to do to that big wall & how to add some color.. Without paint. I'm sticking to the coral pink, minty turquoise colors and adding black, white, & gold. SO excited!
Part Two
This came a month after her crib transition and I was SO nervous! Giving my busy little climber an open bed that she can get in and out of was terrifying. Seriously. But I know it has to happen eventually and I really wanted to get the nursery started into boy mode anyway so... Toddler bed here we came!
To add some color that wasn't permanent, I decided to make Olive's bed sheets. The IKEA toddler bed uses weird sized sheets & I couldn't just buy fun sheets anyway, so I grabbed some lovely fabric from some of my favorite shops and set to make her sheets.
Pretty sure Liv fell in love with her bed. (Ps this was temporarily sitting in her old room while she was in the crib still.. Hence the painted walls)
We then moved her bed into her new room!
Bunny cuddles ensued.
I made those darling little tee pees.. No tutorial or help for ya there (sorry!) but they were super easy and I used kabob sticks for the posts. :)
I also made her pillows for the bed and a bean bag for the corner that she can crawl into to read on her own. She totally LOVES it ps.
We watch Gru in it almost daily. No mommy judgement!
And sometimes take naps
Totally melts your heart huh?
Anyway, back to toddler room updates.. (I get a little lost in her cuteness sometimes) I made the sheets with a panel of white on each side because the fabric wasn't wide enough to make on its own. Total bummer when I realized it at first, but I actually love how it turned out. And if you're wondering how I made them, I just found a tutorial on Pinterest where you cut squares out of the corners.. I modified it quite a bit to work with a weird toddler mattress rather than a crib.
I also made her a new changing pad cover using the same method. It's sooo cute!
The first night in her new room was a bit hard.. We wanted to buy a baby monitor so we could see what she was getting into but hadn't found one yet that we loved so the first night we were blind. But before we just closed her off in there I made sure to take toys out and move things that could be dangerous out too. I want Olive's room to be a relaxing place so I only left her books for her to read if she got out of bed.
We fed Livi a lot for dinner that night, made sure she drank all of her milk, and read a couple of her favorite books before laying her in her new bed and giving her lots of cuddles and love. Tons of smiles and reassuring loves too.
When we left she was still wide awake and was a little confused, but I closed the door and we walked away. She cried out immediately and kept crying for a few minutes. Poor thing started trying to open the door but she couldn't turn the handle thankfully. I went in there to reassure her and smelled poop immediately, so I changed her and laid down on her bed with her to calm her down.. I sang to her and just kinda cuddled up with her. Then once she was mellow I slowly backed off of her bed til I was kneeling in front of her bed but still singing to her. I hesitated for a bit here, not knowing what I should do... I was debating whether I should wait til she fell asleep to leave or just leave then.. but I ended up leaving after being in there for about 10 min with her still awake and she cried right when I stood up, and got out of bed again once the door was closed. She cried at the door for exactly 6 min before she went back to her bed and fell asleep.. Longest six minutes ever! It was so hard to let her cry it out and self soothe, but I felt that she needed to work through it alone.. She has such a sweet disposition and is a total love, but she can also be pretty independent and need her space sometimes.. so as much as I wanted to sprint in there and cuddle her til she was asleep, I just felt she'd do better alone.
Well after a few hours of quiet I trusted that she was asleep enough so I peeked in to see what she was doing and saw this:
Then before I went to bed around midnight, I wanted to check on her again & saw this:
Silly little babe! She must have gotten up to read a book or something and fell asleep where she laid on the floor!
I debated getting her up from the floor and putting her in her bed, but I was afraid she'd wake up and be more weirded out that I was moving her than soothed.. So my little birdie slept on the floor for a few hours.
Liv stayed in her room and quiet the entire night and slept in til 8:30am! She woke me up with a sad cry so I leapt out of my bed and ran into her room so that she didn't feel abandoned (and so that she could trust we would come get her) and walked in to see her sitting on her bean bag, tightly hugging her bunny to her chest. Cutest and saddest thing ever!
The following night we bought a camera called DropCam. It's amazing! It's meant to be used as a home monitor, baby camera, pet monitor, or even business camera. You view the camera on your phone, tablet, or computer.. Super convenient! It has the option (which I love) to send you a notification when there's movement or loud sound detected and you can also talk back and forth through your phone's mic & the camera's (which totally freaked Livi out when I tried it!).
The next couple of nights/naps I sort of waited with bated breath to see if she'd lose it again each time but she really surprised me. She took her naps and slept at her regular time & length and didn't skip a beat.
She definitely entertained us on the camera in the mean time!
I still have big plans for her room, to add some pops of color with a quilt & rug, along with a gallery wall either over her bed or dresser, but that will come once Christmas is over! That front room has a really tall ceiling -- 12 feet -- and has a little loft area for a reading nook. That will be finished when I can actually trust that she won't kill herself by jumping off of it in the middle of the night haha but the main wall that her bed is against I definitely need to do something with to make more exciting.
Overall, the toddler bed & new room transition has gone amazingly well. I'm so incredibly impressed with this birdie of mine, she's such a strong little babe. She has a very soft and sweet personality, I worried about how she would handle it, but she continues to impress me with every new milestone we come across. My favorite tradition we've started: she stays on her bed til we come into her room in the mornings (totally her choice randomly) and I'll climb into her bed with her & she'll go grab a book (or cook as she calls them) and we'll read for about twenty minutes every morning. Cutest thing ever.
xoxo
Mandi
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