An Experiment Going Well

Cole has been climbing in and out of his bed since he was about 15 months old. Some days/weeks/months he is more interested in doing this than others, but it has now become a regular routine at afternoon rest time and in the morning when he first wakes up.
Anyway, I have been considering moving Cole to a toddler bed for a while now. I know this won't contain him and may even make sleeping at bedtime more difficult (he generally falls asleep within a couple of minutes of laying down each night), but I have been hoping the novelty of a new bed and the fact that I am not trying to contain him would make him feel okay about laying in bed to fall asleep at naptime and HOPEFULLY even in the morning when he first wakes up, although I think this second desire is much less likely to happen.

A couple of things I had to consider were all our travels over the Christmas holidays and decided to wait until we returned so he would be content to sleep in cribs and such on the road. The other thing I have pondered is the idea that Rachel is very content in her crib. From experience with these two though, I know without a doubt that I cannot make a change such as this with just one of them. They are very in tune with what the other one is doing, eating, wearing, anything/everything and making sure things are "fair". I am sure this will be a popular word in their vocabulary once they learn it.

On to the experiment phase . . . yesterday Cole was exhausted but seemed to roaming aimlessly around his room and wouldn't settle in to sleep. Rachel was trying to sleep but Cole's roaming was disrupting her. So, I got out the new sleeping bags they got from Grandma Hunt for Christmas, spread them out on the floor with a pillow and blanket and VOILA! sleep. Cole fell asleep very quickly. Rachel read books for a while, but then konked out. They were both still asleep when it was time to pick Robbie up from school. Again today I stretched out the sleeping bags, and they are snoozing away on them. Rachel again took a little longer as she was checking things (books and drawing pad) out a bit, but always bringing them back to her sleeping bag space.

This is a good sign that the toddler bed transition will go well. In fact, I might even hold off a bit and let them continue napping on the sleeping bags so they can continue to keep to their normal bedtime and sleep routines.

Note- Rachel can climb in and out of her bed as well (she was actually the first one to do it last spring), but chooses not to most of the time. She is happy to let Cole bring her toys and books and remain in restful respose in her bed.