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I did it because it was taking over an hour for him to fall asleep, and he was waking up CONSTANTLY.

Our transition was SUPER easy. I bought new "big boy" sheets, and made a really big deal about what a big boy he is now and how cribs are for babies, so this is his big boy bed now (we just did a toddler bed for now).

I think he got out of bed once that first night, and we let him. He sat on the futon in his room for a few minutes, and then climbed back into bed. We decided that part of having a big boy bed was letting him have the freedom to get out of it. Which feels counter-intuitive to getting him to sleep in bed, but it works.

We do have the occasional problem of him climbing out of bed, but he knows he's not supposed to...if he turns on the light or something I poke my head in and he jumps right back in bed

But making a big deal about what a big boy he is has worked wonderfully for us for the bed (and paci weaning, and potty-training...).

Good luck!!!

LO was going through a sleep hell period already, and started climbing and falling out of the crib on purpose because he realized that it would get us to come in the room. so we had no transition time, just converted his crib into a toddler bed one night as he watched.

the first couple of nights were bad. he wouldn't stay in the bed. i think one night my husband actually ended up sleeping in the toddler bed instead of my LO (husband was trying to encourage LO to sleep in the toddler bed--did not work). the next night we did bedtime routine and i closed the door, turned off the lights but stayed in the room. every time he got out of bed, i put him back--no talking, singing, eye contact. just put him back in bed. i did this at least 30 times. at a certain point he got the message to stay in bed. of course when i tried to leave all hell broke loose, so a few nights later we CIO'd for about 40 minutes.

We had a pleasant experience too! DD moved from her crib to a twin bed 2-3 weeks ago with no drama at all (27.5 months, for reference). She got up once the first night and has slept through the night since. She'd been climbing out of her crib for six months or so, and we couldn't put it off any longer. Luckily, she was perfectly ready and excited. We made a fuss about it but kept the rest of her routine the same.