swapping from gro-bag to covers and cot to bed - which first?

[bethdivine]

DS is 18mo. He has never settled well in his cot and I feel he would be a lot easier to settle (and re-settle) if we took the cot sides off and turned the cot into the bed instead. If we did this, I'd rather he had covers than his gro-bag as I'm sure there will be many midnight trips into mummy & daddy's bed, so would want to avoid him tripping over the gro-bag. Thing is, I'm not sure which to attempt first, get him used to covers in the cot, or get him used to the bed in his gro-bag, then change to covers?

be grateful to hear of any experiences of this. TIA.

[mum2becks]

I suppose everyone deals with this differently but I am currently preparing dd's new room with a bed to free up the cot before the birth of 2nd dc!

I decided to take her out of her grobag first while weather has been warm so it didnt matter as much if covers came off, I didnt want to do the other way round incase she got out of bed in the dark and fell over in her grobag! She has been fine (although make sure you move it out of sight as she still wanted it on when she saw it!) has only woke once or twice since but all I have had to do is cover her back up and she has gone straight back to sleep.

I will be putting her into a bed in next couple of weeks so havent experienced that bit yet!

[leoemma]

My ds is 3. I did grobag to covers first as he started to be unsettled at night. Then when he had got used to that - only a week or two I did cot to bed which he didnt initally like but was ok. Havent bothered with grobags for dd 1 as she is houdini and can somehow get out of ones even with zips.

[bethdivine]

thanks both, yes I did think it would prob be best to move out of the gro-bag first, as was worried about the possible falling over if still using a gro-bag when in the bed. It's a cot-bed and I'm pg again, due in April, so as I don't really want to buy another cot, I figure DC2 will be needing to move from the moses basket into the cot July - Aug, so if I can get DS used to the cot bed in the next few months, then he'll have had at least 10 months before I then get him a bed, so it hopefully won't be such a big move. DS doesn't particularly seem to like his cot that much, so I'm hoping it won't be that traumatic a move for him! Plus, he'll be growing out of his gro-bags in the next couple of months and I really don't want to have to fork out even more cash on the next sizes up, when I still have the perfectly good sheets and blankets I bought originally before he was born, then got lured into the gro-bag marketing...when I think how much I've spent in each size, plus the spares, plus the different togs needed as he crossed winter to summer in the same size
thanks.

[LittleMyDancing]

We did both at the same time - he had a new big boy bed with a big boy duvet and a special duvet cover with insects on it. He loved the whole palaver and fuss of it and took to covers straight away.

when your LO comes into your bed, does he snuggle down under your duvet? our Ds was already used to getting under a duvet on our bed and stealing our pillows, so it was an easy transition.

[ceebee74]

I am in this position aswell. I am thinking of moving to a duvet and pillow first (whilst still in cot) and then to a bed a few months later (i.e. just before new baby needs the cot!)

Thought I would try the duvet in the autumn when it gets a bit cooler. Like Littlemydancing said, DS already snuggles under our duvet so it should be ok (I hope!)

[bethdivine]

hmm, when he comes into our bed he goes over the covers as still has gro-bag on, but comes under the covers in the morning when he comes in - when we play tents prob not the most sensible mother in the world, encouraging DS to play under the quilt, overheating himself whilst sleeping!

[ajm200]

We've done growbag to covers and will be doing cot to bed next week. The covers end up like a string in the middle of the bed.

Not sure how to keep DS in the bed though as he is a restless sleeper and trashes about. He moves all over the cotbed in his sleep and often has limbs through the bars.

[ajm200]

We tried a duvet, but he wouldn't have it. Screamed like crazy, threw it out shouting go away.

If we sneak it back over him while he's asleep and he stirs in the night, he gets really cross and evicts it again. Looks like we will go done the sheets and blankets route.... so much for an easy time making his bed.

[mellymell]

Saw this and have just done the transition from grobags to duvet. DS1 was starting to snuggle under our duvet in the morning, so when we bought him one for his bed, in the evening, we got his new duvet and cover and made a big 'ceremony' - when he came to our room for milk and story before bed, there were his teddies all tucked up under his duvet on our bed. he then snuggled in with them as we read the story, then we transferred his duvet to his cotbed. it's worked a treat.