dd1 is 18months old. I know I am a little early but oh well. For big girl bed, we need to start transitioning her since pretty soon dd2 will be too mobile for the co sleeper. She is starting to show signs of potty training (knows when she has pooped and like pretend sitting on the potty) So my question is how did you go about bed transitioning? we just kept putting josh back in when he got up, but sarah is much more attached to her crib than Josh was. Did you do anything different? It's been a while since I did the beginning of potty training, is it just naked time and then put them on every half hour or so?

Becky just remember each child is sooo different in each family let alone from different families. What works for us/me may not for you, as well as what worked for Josh may not work for Sarah not only because he was a boy but also because he is a different child but I'm sure you know that right.

My first 2 kids were my only big crib babies. My other 3 were porta cribs to big kid beds by a year to 18 months. All transitioned differently and I only figured that out in time according to their personality and how they feel asleep and slept. Again all personality tailored. With us and traveling so much had to be taken into consideration when my kids were small. At that time we traveled the east coast moving every 2 weeks in a travel home most of the year.

As far as potty training man my girl was a piece of cake. But that was us. She basically saw a potty seat at 2 years old in the store. She was trained night and day at 2. My oldest was 3 day, almost 4 night. And my other 3 boys were all 2.5 -3 yrs. potty trained night and day. For my daughter she saw dora the explorer seat topper, brought it home, took off her diaper and poof she trained night and day at 2. Honestly it was weird but she did have 4 grown up brothers. But with my boys we did naked time. And I potty trained in *warm* weather for all of them, not the winter, that was a huge help. The warmer the more the boys could run around naked, the more outside naked time the better!

Just take each step slow. Don't be afraid to stop each step if need be for some time and pick it back up in a few months. As you remember probably from training Josh. Its the same. But probably from her personality you may be able to tell how she will train. Those strong willed ones can be a tad tougher.

hugs

All of our kids have transitioned to a bed around their 1st birthday. (11-13mths) I've never had much of any issue with transitioning any of them... none seemed super attached to the crib. My advice (just based on my experiences with my kids) would be to just go cold turkey. Collapse the crib and put it away and the bed be the only option. This is for a couple of reasons. If she is attached to the crib, having the bed and the crib out at the same time, she will likely always prefer the crib. Also, since part of the reason you want to transition her is because of dd2, you want her to be really comfortable in her bed (if at all possible) before you give away *her* crib to the younger sibling. We've seen some issues with ds2 toward dd2 because of this...not with the crib but with other things. If he remembers that it is (was) his, he will be offended/mad/possessive when we get it out and use it with dd. Also, whenever you do it, make a big deal about it. Play it up. Make her feel super special and grown up because she gets a big girl bed and hopefully that will help. Whatever you decide, I'm sure you'll all do fine! :)

Oh, and on the pt'ing issue, dd1 trained herself at 19mths. Some girls just do it early! Follow her lead on it... that is definitely works best at that age. (Any age, really!)