Out of the Crib and Using a Baby Pillow

04/01/09

My first child happily slept in her crib until she was almost 3. The arrival of her baby brother meant we had to move her to a normal bed. We did not even think about baby pillows and blankets. She wore a sleep sack and was snug and happy. The sleep sack prevented her from crawling out of the crib, because she couldn't swing her legs up. She was so happy in the crib, I don't think she would have even if she was not wearing one. It was an easy transition when we moved her to a big bed. After getting her used to the big bed with a few naps, we transitioned her to nighttime too. It was a full size bed in a beautiful wooden frame. She had two pillows and a big comforter. We did not bother with one of those little baby pillows. We went straight to normal pillows.

My son decided not to follow the crib path his sister did. Early on, he learned to unzip his sleep sack. Swinging his leg up on the rail became a regular exercise. For months and months, that is as far as he would go. Until one night, when he climbed out of the crib entirely and walked to greet me at the door. We did not waste any time setting up his crib mattress on the floor.

We had a lot more challenges introducing him to a bed than we did when we did the same with his older sister. Since he was so young, it was not an easy transition. He was a couple months shy of his second birthday. We had to remove most of the things from his room for a couple weeks, so he could not get into trouble. Another parent recommended putting a gate on the bedroom door, which turned out to be incredibly helpful. He was so stubborn that for the first couple days, he would fall asleep sitting in the middle of the wood floor of his room. It took about a week to make the transition.

He was digging his new bed when people started doling out the advice. "Oh, he is not old enough to be sleeping in a big bed." "He could get into trouble, since he does not know better. "He is too young for a big blanket and pillow." Say What? He can not use a pillow? How is he going to be comfortable? Can he use a tiny airline baby pillow? So I hopped online to check out the age recommendations. Children under 2 years of age should NOT use a pillow or big blanket. Once a child is 2 or they move to a big bed, you can introduce them then.

Since my son was not yet 2, I decided to follow the advice and start with one of those baby pillows. It was so small, like an airline pillow, and I hardly saw the point. It got lost in the full size bed and my son did not seem to know it was really a pillow to put his head on. My son did not seem to need pillows or bedding; it was just my need to make it look like a normal bed that kept bugging me. We finally put pillows and a comforter on his bed after about a month. He seemed to enjoy having a big bed with all the accessories. He was happy to not have that little tiny baby pillow for his head too.