When Did You Transition to a Big Kid Bed?

Let’s talk sleep transitions — specifically the transition from crib to “big kid” bed. I feel like everyone has a different timeline, different reasoning, and different chaos leading up to it. So I’m genuinely curious: when did you transition your little one and how did it go?

We’re currently in the thick of trying to figure out if it’s time.

We dropped down to one nap about a month ago and, for a glorious week, it was magical. Twelve solid hours at night, predictable bedtime, and naps that didn’t feel like a negotiation with a tiny attorney. I thought, wow, this is it, this is the sleep rhythm everyone talks about.

And then the molars happened.

Our son has been working on his molars (plus an incisor that decided to join the party at the same time) and it has completely flipped our nights upside down. He is such a good sleeper normally — which honestly makes it even harder watching him struggle to get comfortable. I do not love the idea of feeding him during night wakes, but sometimes that’s the only thing that soothes him enough to go back to sleep. And when you’re watching your baby ache from pain, the rulebook goes out the window.

We finally had 2–3 days last week where he was falling asleep easily again, but then he’d still wake in the middle of the night uncomfortable as the tooth continued stretching the gums. Now we’re back to square one: bedtime feels like a full production again.

Right now the only routine that reliably works looks like this:

• turn off every light in the entire house

• hide my husband in the guest room (he’s way too exciting to ignore)

• show him that the dogs are sleeping

• snuggle in my bed while he holds my face until he drifts off

Once he’s asleep, I get about 5–10 minutes before my arm causes an issue with his comfort and I have to silently ninja-transfer him to the crib. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. He loves sleep — genuinely loves it — which makes it even harder to watch him struggle so much for rest.

We tried capping his nap to see if it would help the night wakings, but honestly it just felt like torture because sleep is his happy place. And even through all of this he’s still so joyful during the day, which blows my mind.

So this has led me to wonder about transitioning to a floor bed — maybe even a full size. I’m imagining being able to snuggle him through the discomfort at night without the whole-house world tour beforehand. The only hesitation is that he still wears a sleep sack and loves it, and I’m not sure if rolling off a bed in a sleep sack is a disaster waiting to happen. We started the sleep sack months ago because he learned how to climb out of his crib way before he learned how to walk. Truly, the climbing came first and the walking was kind of an afterthought.

So here’s where I’m opening it up to you:

When did you transition your baby out of the crib and did it help with nights?

Did you wait for a milestone — age, climbing, nap dropping, sleep maturity, or just pure survival? Did you go straight to a twin/full, or toddler bed first? And for bonus points — any advice for sleep sack lovers and tiny daredevils?

Tell me everything. I’m all ears.

Every time I think we land in a rhythm, it lasts about 10 days before something — teeth, travel, a growth spurt, the alignment of the planets — knocks us into a new chapter. There’s this weird parenting culture around sleep where everyone wants to know if your baby sleeps through the night, how long their naps are, what your bedtime routine looks like, whether you’ve achieved “independent sleep” yet… and honestly we’ve never fit neatly into any of those categories for very long. We’re always drifting between groups, phases, and identities like sleep tourists.

So I’m no longer aiming for perfection. I’m aiming for what works right now — because “right now” seems to be the only constant. And I want to hear what worked (or didn’t work) for you too.