Personalized baby pillow

My first child was happy as a clam sleeping in the crib until she was 2 ½ years old. The only reason we moved her to a normal bed was because her baby brother arrived. While she was in the crib, we did not have to worry about things like baby pillows and blankets. She wore a sleep sack and was snug and happy. She could not swing her legs over the rail, while wearing the sleep sack. She was so happy in the crib, I don’t think she would have even if she was not wearing one. When we moved her to her bed, there was no drama. After getting her used to the big bed with a few naps, we transitioned her to nighttime too. It was a full size bed in a beautiful wooden frame. We ordered a cute girly comforter and grabbed a couple adult sized pillows. We did not bother with one of those little baby pillows. We went straight to normal pillows.

My son was an entirely different story. Early on, he learned to unzip his sleep sack. Swinging his leg up on the rail became a regular exercise. He was happy to just do that exercise for months and months. One night, he finally flung the other leg over too. We immediately took the crib mattress out of the crib and set it up on the floor.

Moving him to a bed presented all these obstacles that we did not have to deal with when we moved our daughter to a bed. Since he was so young, it was not an easy transition. He was a couple months shy of his second birthday. We had to remove most of the things from his room for a couple weeks, so he could not get into trouble. Another parent recommended putting a gate on the bedroom door, which turned out to be incredibly helpful. He was so stubborn that for the first couple days, he would fall asleep sitting in the middle of the wood floor of his room. After a very LONG week, he was back in his routine.

When we finally got him comfortable in his new bed routine, the advice from well meaning people starting coming in. “Oh, he is not old enough to be sleeping in a big bed.” “It is dangerous.” “He is too young for a big blanket and pillow.” Wait. What? He can not use a pillow? How is he going to be comfortable? Can he use a tiny airline baby pillow? Being an overly cautious mom, I checked in our medical baby books and online. Indeed, it is NOT recommended that you give children under the age of 2 any pillows or heavy blankets. Most of what I read says you can introduce those things around age 2 or when the child moves to a big bed.

Since my son was not yet 2, I decided to follow the advice and start with one of those baby pillows. It was so small, like an airline pillow, and I hardly saw the point. It did not look like our pillows, so I think my son thought it was something else. I think the need to put a pillow and bedding on his bed was due to my own notion of what a bed is supposed to look like. We waited about a month, until my son was totally comfortable in his bed. Then we put pillows and a comfy blanket on his bed. He seemed to enjoy having a big bed with all the accessories. He was happy to not have that little tiny baby pillow for his head too.