Monday, 4 January 2016

Toddler Bed Tips

Tuckaire Toddler Travel Bed

Since taking the sides off Eve's cot-bed last week, I've learnt a few things. The first night that she slept in her new bed it took us an extra hour and a half to get her to go to sleep, but she slept through the night and all went well. But the following few nights she either fell out of bed during the night, or woke up slightly earlier than I would have liked, as her duvet had fallen off.

I quickly rectified the duvet situation, and placed a heavy quilted bedspread at the end of the bed, on top of the duvet to keep it in place. We will also attempt to tuck her duvet under the mattress once she is in bed ('attempt' being the optimum word here; her new phrase of the Christmas holidays has been: 'no, mummy, leave it.') 

However, we hadn't wanted to spend money on toddler bed guards so we kept putting her back to bed hoping that she would get used to her new parameters. This didn't seem to happen, and Daddy didn't want to move her bedroom around, so we kept getting woken up by a loud thud as Eve fell out of bed each night. I would find her on the floor next to her bed saying, 'bumped head.' One night I sat with Eve trying to calm her to put her back into bed, but all she could say was, 'want want Daddy.' Thankfully Sam heard her and came to take over.

Place a pool noodle under the sheet on either side of the bed, to keep your toddler secure.

I put a message on our local area Facebook page to see if I could buy a couple of bed guards cheaply from any nearby neighbours, and was quickly informed that I could try a few things without having to spend much money. One tip is using pool noodles underneath the sheet on either side of the bed, or similarly using rolled up towels. I opted for the cheapest option - rolled up towels, and utilised them last night for the first time.  They worked like a dream. Thank you BS4 Connect mums!


The Tuckaire Toddler Travel Bed looks brilliant if you are planning on visiting friends and family with your little ones or even staying in a hotel or going camping. It's approximately £65 from various places online and does seem like a great product. I'm definitely going to ponder on buying this, it could prove very handy over the next few years. There are other products similar to this on the market, it's just a case of seeing which one would work best for you.

Today of course, is our first day back at work and Eve is at nursery. She has missed her nursery friends terribly over the Christmas holidays. We have talked about them constantly; during meal, bath and bedtimes. Eve has even asked us to draw her friend Euan on a number of occasions; with amusing results. We drove past nursery on New Years Day, and Eve looked out of the car window at the closed nursery and said, 'Hello friends.' 

Last night we told her that she had to have a good sleep as she would be going to nursery in the morning to see her friends. This proved very successful and she was much happier at the prospect of going to bed. Eve was given some lovely books for her birthday and Christmas presents, which I have loved reading to her at bed time recently. On the whole she has been brilliant with the bed-transition, there have only been a few nights where we had to keep running upstairs to put her back to bed. For the past couple of months when Sam goes up to say goodnight to her she always tells him that Mummy is downstairs cooking; cucumber. This makes us chuckle every time.

Eve having fun with Granny Lops and Daddy at Christmastime

I fear that I am falling into acts of bribery with Eve, but some situations seem to warrant it. I'm hoping that it's normal to bribe children with flapjack bars and gingerbread men... Sometimes they are the only things that will make our determined daughter follow the plan of the day. We've had some food struggles with her during the holidays too. She used to be good at eating vegetables but has recently decided that she will not touch them, no matter what we do.



However, last night during a roast chicken dinner; after crying and screaming for rice pudding, she did give in and put a piece of cooked carrot in her mouth. I was standing behind her in the kitchen whilst Daddy was sitting with her, and was just about to salute the sky when Eve promptly spat it out and told us that she didn't like it. We are trying to not make an issue out of it, and are sure that being back at nursery with her friends (the majority of whom are boys and eat pretty much everything) she'll get back onboard with eating a variety of food.


Eve was very sweet last night though, she knew that she had upset Daddy who had cooked her a lovely meal. I was talking to her and consoling her about the dinner situation. I wiped her tears and kissed her. She kissed me back and said, 'sorry,' and then reached out her arms for Dad. I passed her to Sam who was also almost in tears, she hugged him to show him that she was sorry, and then asked for corn on the cob. The trauma of some of these meal times, eh. We did have some good meals over the holidays though which made me happy after spending time cooking lasagne, stews and other pasta dishes.


Eve threw her first real tantrum during the Christmas holidays. She absolutely adores swiping through photos and videos on our iphones, but her addiction for it has increased and we could see that it was negatively effecting her when we took it away from her. For the past few weeks we had been trying to keep our phones away from her, but because it was the start of the holidays and I had time to spend with her I thought it would be nice to sit together and look through photos on my phone with her. This proved to be a big mistake. She would not let go of the phone and when we finally removed it from her she went completely berserk. I'm not sure if this is the start of the 'terrible twos' as some people like to call it, but let's hope not. In general she has a happy, easy going nature and is communicating really well for her age, so we hope to bypass that stage (as long as the iphone is out of sight).

Eve before Christmas asking for her beloved pictures

Since iphone tantrum mania, we have banned dear Eve from the iphone and have made her go cold turkey. She still asks for pictures most days, but instead we pull a photo album off the shelf - yep, an old school, real life book. I made it online last year, and have been compiling photo year books of each year of her life and plan to keep doing so as she grows up. She loves looking at photos of, 'tiny Eve,' as she calls herself when she looks at her baby photos. 

As soon as Eve spots the phone she wants to look at pictures.





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