So, this little baby girl is becoming a big girl very fast! We are even getting ready to move her from crib to bed.

I almost couldn’t believe it when we started thinking about getting her a big girl bed!  So, we looked to Sauder, the sponsor of this post, because they have some great furniture that won’t cost us an arm & a leg.
I normally just skip the toddler bed part, because I don’t want to spend money on a toddler bed and I usually use a bed rail anyways, so we just move our kids right into their big-kid beds.

I decided to go for white. Her room is white right now and I just love white furniture, in general. It seems so clean, fresh & timeless.

We went on the Sauder website and looked at their Expedition Design. They even give you a quiz to take to determine your design style at this Style Lab. We decided to go with this bed (because it functions as a bed & a dresser).​

Here is ours…


 And the matching headboard: 

ps- I had to get a shot of our daughter mid-set up.  haha!  It took my husband about an hour to set up- he said that it was easy & the instructions were easy to follow.

Even though the bed has the drawers (and I will use them for out-of-season clothing storage), I will still use a dust ruffle, because I love the way that they look.

It came this week, with clear instructions and my husband was eager to set it up (well, I should rephrase that to say that I was eager to have him set it up!) haha!

In the meantime…

Tips for transitioning from crib to bed

1. First- I set the bed up days before I want them to use it. I get them used to having it in their room.

2. Try this first at nap time. I always try it at nap time before moving onto bedtime.

3. Talk about the rules:

“This is going to be your new bed. You are going to sleep here now. It will be a lot of fun! You are NOT allowed to come out of your bed. When you are ready to get up, you can just call for Mommy and I will come and get you. Lets practice. Go night night” (lay down with them and pretend to sleep). “Ok- time to wake up! MOMMY! MOMMY! Look at the door- Mommy will come in and get you.” (I do this because I do not want our kids walking down the stairs alone when they are this young.)

4. Follow your normal nap time routine. Read a book, sing your song, say their prayer and then tell them that it is night-night time.

5. Lay them down on their new bed (expect a little confusion & maybe a little crying.)

6. If they continue to cry for more than a few minutes, or if you hear them walking around, go in and place them back on their bed. Continue to do this over & over, in a loving way.

This is different for each child!  Our first child was in a twin bed before he was two and he did great on day 1.   Our second child was the same way.  Our third child was older (2 1/2) when we moved him and he was VERY hard to transition!   This is the reason that we are moving our daughter to her big girl bed a little earlier, like we did with our first two children.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Sauder. The opinions and text are all mine.