Broken Sleep and Transitioning to Bunk Beds

I had been hunting for that special bed for over a year and kept procrastinating on switching Baby Boy out of his crib. Mind you, Little Monkey was out of the crib a month before she turned two and we’ve been lazy with the second child. Over the Christmas holidays I was doing some research and found one that came with very negative reviews but LOOKED perfect! Surely going by looks alone wasn’t an option, right?

We knew we wanted the bunk bed to have steps vs. a ladder and that extra storage was premium, given our tiny condo. We had to knock down the closet to make the bed fit so compartments to store stuff was mandatory. As luck would have it, on our way back from the ski resort we decided to explore the furniture stores in Brampton and one of them told us that what we wanted could only be found at JYSK. Well that name sounded familiar! It was the one I had my eyes on during Christmas! So that cold March day we walked in and played around with the bunk beds. We went home, did more measurements and decided to order the bed through their online store. Just as the reviews had predicted, it was a nightmare and took a couple days and many phone calls to realize that we’d have to go back to the store to place this order. Apparently they were having issues with our credit card  (which is rubbish, our trusty Avion Visa card was all clear). Long story short, the hubs went out to Scarborough where there was another JYSK and placed the order.

Things arrived and luckily for us, not only were no parts missing (as per reviews) but the hubs was also able to put it together in two days!! Yay! We also had the foresight to realize that we’d need two new mattresses and I had been seeing those Casper ads around downtown Toronto so the hubs and I decided that the kids needed a fab mattress to get them through the next 10 years of their lives. So we splurged on $700 mattresses which arrived promptly and in a very fun looking box. Casper mattresses have won many awards and given their combination of latex, memory, and support foams, the bed promises blissful sleep. I was most interested in the fact that Casper mattresses are free from harmful chemical flame retardants as they use a purely mechanical fire sock made from silica threads. Luckily for us they guaranteed a full return with 100 sleeps and boy oh boy did we need that! We didn’t realize how high the mattress was and so Little Monkey’s head was hitting the ceiling!

Just like their twitter team (they respond with the funniest gifs), their customer service team was fab. We learned first hand that Casper actually donates these “used” beds. Phew! I’m gad there’s a family in need down the street from us who will be able to use the bed. Little Monkey now has a much cheaper and thinner mattress and there’s still no complaints. The hubs is the one who changes her linen and you won’t hear me complaining about that!

Things I Did Not Think About Prior to Switching to Bunks

• Extra time needed to pull Little Monkey out from the top bunk each morning
• How difficult it would be to change linen for the top bunk
• Popcorn ceiling cracking onto the top bunk and general dustiness high up there
• Having Baby Boy walk into our room each and every night

Baby Boy wanders over into our room nearly every day at 2 a.m. Some days he drags me to his bed saying “sleep with me” and some days I’m too exhausted to do anything but pull him into our bed. The times I have slept in his bed, I have noticed how cooling his mattress is. I sweat like a hog at night and so now I’m thinking the hubs and I need to invest in a Casper mattress as well!!

We do have a lock on their door and while I’m tempted to use it, I also don’t want to disturb Little Monkey. So we’ve been sucking it up and sacrificing our sleep. Just wait until summer hols and do it is what I’ve been advised. Clearly this is a sign that Baby Boy isn’t ready (though he does love his awesome spiderman sheets I brought back from Colombo!) and us forcing this on him may not have been the best idea. This is another reason we’ve been slow on the potty training and milk bottle tossing! I’m really hoping that in a couple more weeks he won’t keep waking up in the middle of the night!!

When it comes to transitioning from crib to bunk bed… what tips do you have?