Twins are 3, toddler beds are near
My twins just turned 3 in March. They're still in cribs, and they still nap (one every time, the other one 3 out of 5 times) A friend in another state also has twins and her toddler bed transition has gone terribly - I think she underestimated it and thought it would be fine.. it was not. They're all over the house, she's at her wits end and I really feel for her. It's made me realize I need to be as prepared as I can. What we have done:
- anchored the furniture
- Started a routine with a bedtime/wake-up light, by now we're 6+ months in and they are very used to it
- fully potty trained, they sleep through the night and wake-up with a dry pullup
What scares me:
- Locking them in their room once they get out of the cribs is obviously not safe, but they can also now slide a chair to the front door and open all the locks.. yikes. Just thinking about it keeps me up at night.
- Figuring out pee breaks. They can sleep through without going to the bathroom, but once they are out of the cribs, I want to be able to give them a chance to pee. They hate the small potties and only want to pee on the real toilet, and I also don't trust them with potties in their dark bedroom. So what will stop them from roaming around the house? If they can climb out of a crib they could obviously easily scale a toddler gate.
- One bothering the other. Already they yell at each other sometimes when they want the other one to wake-up. There is white noise in there but of course once they are able to move around they could unplug it.
Aside from the good old 'this is going to be hell, no way around it', is there anyone with actionable advice, both the prep and the transition, that worked for them? I'm all about routine and structure, but really anything that didn't trap you in their bedroom for hours or made them run wild around the house at all hours is very welcome!