toddler bed suggestions

[gisdude]

Hi all,
I have a 21 month old. She goes down at about 9:00pm each night, with a minor wake up in the middle of the night. She takes a 2 hour nap at noon. We eat dinner around 5 ish, and she is VERY picky about food (but is getting better about eating what she asks for).

My wife and I are looking at getting her own bed in her room. She never slept in her crib - only in bed with mom, we gave up after 2 weeks or so. She just didn't like the crib.

2 things: 1. I'm nervous about putting her in a bed. She rolls around a lot and has fallen off the CAL-KING sized bed at least twice.
2. This is going to be a difficult transition - from our room to hers. But, I think it needs to be done. I know she is going to put up a tantrum.

Any ideas, thoughts, suggestions?

Thanks

[lullaboo]

hi
i don't have experience of exact same, but have just moved 2yr old to new room for new baby arrival and what really helped was spending lots of time together in new room, plaaying / jumping on bed and involving him in moving the bed in etc.  turned out much less of an issue than we expected, no fuss.  ok this was still cot and not big bed so falling off not an issue.  what about reading stories about moving to big bed for few weeks before?

[~*Nicole*~]

What time does she wake in the morning? 9:00pm is a late bedtime for a noon time nap. I'd suggest an earlier bedtime during this time of transition so she is not OT b/c that could lead to her having a harder time settling on her own.

Also, my preference for a bed would be a twin sized bed against a wall with a safety rail on the side. OR putting the mattress on the floor at first.

She likely resisted her crib, not b/c she didn't like it, but b/c she rather liked sleeping with mommy and will probably resist and changes to the sleeping routine she has become accustomed to. Co-sleeping is a hard habit to break and it will require a lot of work to get her used to going to sleep on her own in her own bed. I'd recommend GW and have mom sleep with her in her room/bed a few nights and slowly move further away from her until she is out of the room. This may take a few weeks even, depending on how much she can handle. There will be crying, but you are providing comfort with mom's presence. Eventually she will be able to fall asleep alone, but I'd do it in baby steps.