Well, it happened

[oswin]

At 16 months old, DD escaped from her crib, then proved she could do it again. Her new bedroom was mostly set up, so we hurriedly finished taping up the cord for her monitor and made the bed (twin mattress on the floor). Now it's an hour past her bedtime (she didn't adjust to DST and this is an hour on top) and she's howling. She was howling in her crib before she escaped, so she is just not having a good night. Any tips on dealing with this? She normally goes down easily at bedtime.

[cincodemayo]

Oh no! No advice, other than you might just have to keep laying her down on it and then let her CIO?

[oswin]

Well, about 20 minutes of various crying noises and she appears to be asleep (or at least quiet). She's not on the mattress, but I can see a bit of her head (she's on the floor). Hoping she stays down. ETA I wish our video monitor panned so I could see more of her room.

[hermione]

I'm burying my head in the sand about this. I want at least another year in the crib. Please, please, please.

I hope your transition is easy!

[carolinagirl831]

Good luck I'm dreading this!.

[oswin]

Shit. It's 10pm and she's wailing again.

[gibbylod]

Oh no! I have no helpful advice here. I hope she goes to sleep soon and hopefully tomorrow will be better.

[oswin]

Well, I consoled her for a bit, she wailed by the door after I left, and now she seems to be sleeping on the mattress. I left a flashlight on and the hall light on this time - it may have been a bit too dark before. I also just spent the last 20 minutes converting her crib to a toddler bed as a contigency plan (since her old room is toddlerproof enough that were it not for the safety concern of falling while escaping she could stay).

[thebreakfastclub]

My son had been in the crib happily since he was 10 days old, and he abruptly gave it up at 23 months without warning. There is a big difference between 16 and 23 months, but the biggest thing I learned is to not fight the transition.

DS did drowsy but awake in the crib, but things are different in the bed. I have a flat pillow and small blanket for him. We sit in the bed and read stories, and then the light in his room goes out, but the hallway nightlight is on, and the light in my bedroom is on to give some light.

Then I tell him a story for maybe 10 minutes, and he generally falls asleep. If my story is done, I just sit quietly in our glider and he falls asleep. It doesn't take longer than before, it's just different. My "stories" are made up adventures of Thomas the Train.

He does not wander much at night. He will call for me from his bed most times, although I did wake up at 4:10 this morning to find him standing right next to my side of the bed, LOL. He generally STTN, but 4am is when he will wake if it's going to happen. I am going to order an Elmo board book from Amazon that mentions staying in bed all night to see if that helps reinforce. I also keep the gate at the top of our steps closed at night. It is right outside his room.

Again, not sure this experience is really applicable, since your DD is much younger. Overall though, life with a toddler bed is not that different than the crib.