From cot to bed. What advice can you give me!

[FairlyUseless]

The time is coming where were going to have to take the sides off ds's cot bed. This fills me with dread as he is a terrific sleeper - 12 hours straight with no faffing about - but we need to start thinking about it as he's going to be in a full size single fairly soon.

How did you do it successfully? What advice can you give me? Or what do you wish you'd do differently if you could do it again? I don't want him getting in and out a million times a night!

Thanks!

You don't say how old he is but does he sleep in a sleeping bag? We have always kept the sleeping bag when they first move into a bed rather than going straight to duvet and pillow. Seems to stop them getting out and running around so much also not changing everything at once keeps it familiar.
Also we put a gate on his bedroom door so he's not roaming around the house in the middle of the night.

Just do it and see how it goes, you might not need any strategies both my DSs went from cot to bed and never ran about etc. The 7 year old has only just started getting up and going downstairs by himself because we told him he could. The 4 year old still just sits up in bed and shouts for us. Not every child is a run about-er. You wont know until you give it a go.

A lot of pillow and blanket or mattress on the floor beside the bed.. When we moved DS he fell out of bed twice, as in his cot he was caged in (that sounds terrible ) and that would hold him off!

Depending on how hold your kid is, baby gate by the door. We will do that once DS is walking and not sleeping in a sleeping bag!

Oh and my son is 12 month old today! He is sleeping in his room in a toddler bed since he is 10 month old..

We got the foam bumpers that go under the sheets when we changed from cot to bed. Much better than a bed rail in my opinion as doesn't feel guard and rail like but stops them falling out of bed. Also made a BIG deal out if her choosing some new sheets, new duvet cover etc and made it feel really exciting. Good luck

Ah, thanks everyone. And happy birthday mini-hartmel!!

He's just turned 3 and has been out of bags for a good few months. I like the sound of the foam bumpers, will look into that. Hopefully he'll still love his bed and not want to leave it!

Get fitted sheets. Put swimming noodles under the sheet where the open side is. Put a large teddy or a spare quilt on the floor for bouncing purposes. Get a child gate for the top of the stairs or his room (whichever you feel). Kids bounce. Mine kinda slipped feet first rather than full on launched.

We left a potty for night time wees for the first few times we gated their rooms, after that we gated the stairs.