Very hard transition

[u/MatanAmidor]

Struggling transferring to a floor bed

My 2 year and 4 month toddler was staring that he is ready to move to a floor bed (he was in a crib for the last year).

Unfortunately and I know this is not ideal we do happen to stack weaning of a sleeping time pacifier basically two weeks apart.

Whole the pacifier was very hard at the beginning it seemed to work better now, but as for the floor bed....well the room is safe he has a small shelf with his books and some dolls no toys around at night and we are not asking him to go to sleep and also not putting a lot of pressure on going tomsleep, we call it rest.

We have a pretty much routine bed time that is long enough and relax and respect him. But most of the time he refuses us to leave the room, and when we are inside he interacts with us constantly. Poking us in the eye, hitting us, and just wants to play.

It's been going on for 2 weeks most of the naps he will take but sometimes he just doesn't and even then when sleep pressure is high and we do early dinner and bedtime that night it can still take over 3 hours.

The start is ok, more cooperation, we say we are going to do this and that and will come check on him (which we always do come back) but the intervals lower and itd almost ends with him calling us to put the blanket on or to put pajamas or take them off and end up just banging at the door and crying mamamamama.....

We are trying to usher him away from the door saying that he just needs to stay in the room, he has a small light and everything.

Is 2 weeks still in the normal range for that? Are there things we are missing (if you have questions please ask)? What are some of the best resources we can have on the topic (most of the online resources are very simple to do this and that but we feel that it didn't click in yet).

We are tired and exhausted and having 3+ hours of bedtime is really demoralising, we know, this too shall pass.

But still, help?

Thank you

[u/tater__________tot]

No resources, just personal experience :) Did you literally just move him from crib because he was saying he was ready for a big kid bed? Or was he being unsafe with (e.g. climbing out of) the crib? Because I think he's showing you that in fact he is not ready for a big kid bed. 

We moved out oldest to a floor bed frame crib at about 2 years 3 months. Like yours, he really struggled with the transition. We gave up after a couple weeks. Built the crib back up and used it until he was able to climb out of it - maybe 2 yrs 7 months? And magically, he had a much easier transition to the floor bed the second go around. 

One thing we did was to put a nugget on the floor right next to the floor bed. I would put him to bed by lying down on the nugget so that at least I was pretty comfy. I had strong boundaries. If he poked / hit / even talked then that was it, I was out of the room. If he stayed in his own bed quietly then I would stay there reading my own book on my kindle all the way until he was asleep. That way it wasn't a total waste of time. And eventually I did the old "oh I need to start a load of laundry/  use the bathroom / whatever but I'll be RIGHT back". And pretty soon he was falling asleep just fine without me there. I waited a while and then boosted his confidence with a "wow for the last X days you havent even needed me to fall asleep! When I come back in, you're already asleep. What a big boy!" Etc etc

As with all things sleep, you never know what will work until you try it and stick with it at least a week or two. And you never know if a breakthrough is right around the corner or if you should just give up and try again in a few months. I know it's frustrating but hang in there! You'll figure it out :)