Putting 20 month old in his own bed.... can it work?

[cityangel]

I am due in September and ds will be 25 months then. So we are planning to leave potty training until after when he's 2.5 and showing lots of signs of being ready. There's a chance we may move house later in the year as well.

We thought we'd try and move him into his own bed before the baby comes and remove a possible association with new baby and potty training.

He is nearly grown out of the largest grow bags and trying to climb out of the cot.

Our plan is to build the cot bed and we have ordered a babydan bed rail. We're replacing the blind with safe blackout curtains and putting a roller stair gate across his door.

I don't want to rush him, but I reckon the longer he gets used to the cot the harder it will be to get him out of it? He hates change and is very observant. We left a toy in the cot by accident and he cried loads the other night

Just looking for some re-assurance that it could work... and advice on when to give up if it doesn't seem to be working. I was planning on using the growbag for the first week or 2 and keeping the rest of the routine the same?

We are quite firm normally and only go back in the room on the rare occassions he cries. Usually he's pood or is unwell. So I am not sure how to handle nights of unsettled...

[teaandcakeplease]

My DD had to be moved into a bed as she levered herself out of the cot and hurt herself. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be for me. We had discussions about big girls beds and like peppa pig etc. Then when we did it she kept climbing out and coming out, but the first time I said "no its bedtime, get back into bed" and put her in it, then after each time I would calmly place her back in without talking or eye contact again and again until she passed out. By day 3 she'd got the message.

I think if you talk about it lots first over a few days and maybe just put bed in room to look at first of all.

Maybe it'll all help.

Hmmm trouble is every baby is different but hopefully some other mumsnetters will come along with their experience and ideas too today..

[cityangel]

Thank you this is very helpful

I am hoping it won't be as bad as I envisage as I was stupidly awake thinking about it last night!

[displayuntilbestbefore]

All my 3 were out of their cots by 17mths becaue they had either climbed out and I didn't want them to hurt themselves doing it repeatedly (ds1 and 2) or they just got too big and found the cot too stifling and not enough room (ds3).
I think you're sensible to leave the potty training until later and concentrate on one thing at a time and get your DS into his own bed and settled well before the baby arrives.
Good luck - I expect you will find it a lot easier than you expect TBH. DH and I were ready for numerous trips to put DCs back into their beds but we didn't have more than a few evenings of persuasion and even then it wasn't for long before they nodded off happily

[hana]

we had dd1 in a bed by about 16 months - we coslept (well from when she'd wake up in the middle of the night until we got up the next day - was so much easier for her to pad out of bed and come and find us than the other way around. it was all fine.