Just before we moved, Kiddo started expressing a definite interest in sleeping in a bed, not her crib. As we knew she needed to move any way (what with the new baby coming and all) we figured we'd move her once we had access to another bed, so we did it in the new place. It was a disaster.
She loved the bed. Let there be no question about that. But only the first night we put her in the bed did she fall asleep there in any reasonable time frame. Night after night, we (mostly my husband) spent 2-3 (or more) hours trying to convince her to go to sleep, stay in bed, or anything. We also traveled for Christmas during this time, and then she was sick, and then family came into town, meaning that there was no good time to do sleep training (nor were we sure how to do sleep training on a 2-year old).
When I did find my resource on sleep training (Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child), he basically said this: 2 is too young to move to a bed. They lack the impulse control to stay in bed. Yeah, I thought as I read that, we've figured that out. But he also gave suggestions on how to keep them in bed, so we decided to try it out.
After three nights, we were failing miserably. And then one night, about 90 minutes into our "get back into bed" routine (on a day when she was very tired, so should have fallen straight to sleep) my husband cracked. He brought her to me, told me she should stay there, moved the bed, and set up the crib. She fell asleep within minutes of being put in there.
And has for the last three nights. Her falling asleep quickly (thus perhaps finally starting to catch up on at least of month of sleep deprivation) is a good endorsement of my husband's plan. His joy in not spending hours trying to get her to sleep each night is another. But the best endorsement for me is Kiddo's joy in being put in the crib each night. It seems that she may have understood she wasn't sleeping well, and is grateful to be somewhere she can.
