moving 21 month old into a bed - don't really want to but might have to, need advice!

[bohemianbint]

Am wondering if it's time to move DS to a bed, partly because we have another baby due in August, and it seems demented to buy another cot for the new baby, rather than just hand down the one we already have. Also DS did fall out of the cot once when he wasn't in his sleeping bag, so have been a bit wary of it ever since.

I'm just wondering if it's too soon for him? Ideally I wanted to keep him in it until he was about 8 to stop him wandering around his room and messing about til all hours, but maybe he'd be alright? He is a pretty good sleeper generally, he goes down at 7pm for a good 12 hours. Practically, it makes sense to move him but I don't want to do it before he's ready, and I'm mindful that I don't want to do it too close to the next baby arriving in case it's too much change all on one go.

Any advice? When did you move DC into a bed, and was it a hellish nightmare?

We moved DS1 just before he was 2 as well and it was absolutely fine! I was really worried that he would either fall out or just keep getting out of bed but actually he became more settled if anything when he woke in the morning and hardly ever got out of bed even though he could . Maybe he is an oddball but it had no negative impact on him at all

We moved DD1 into a bed when she was 21 months, just before DS was born. She loves her bed and still does (much like her mother!). We thought she might be a bit of a wanderer but it turns out she was the other extreme to the point where she would rather pee in her bed than get out!

I've just recently moved my little one into his "big boy bed" and hes 22months there have been no problems he's never fallen out and in fact stays in his bed shouting in a morning till we go and get him.

Good luck

Had to do the same with dd1 when dd2 came along. She did fall out a few times but was in a low toddler bed so not too bad. We also put a safety gate up on her bedroom door so that if she got up in the night she could not get out of her bedroom but could open her door. She did not have many toys in her bedroom so if she did get up there was not much else to do than look at books or play with teddies! Keep all the noisy toys somewhere else!

We did move her out after dd2 was born as she was only 18 mths old. But we did slow transition - got her the new bed and made it up - let her see it for a couple of days before asking if she wanted to try it. Then couple days later took cot down and moved it out of her room to dd2's room but did not reassemble for a few days.

I had bed made up in ds room for a few months, i had the room and it was handy if i needed to settle him in middle of night. He was amazing when i decided to make the move. I do have a safety side on but he never gets out of once i have put him to bed. It's great in the morn as he gets out of bed and puts tv on, so i get extra hour in bed (we live in bungalow so able to let him roam around, just a gate on kitchen)

we put our ds in a big bed at 19 months and it was hard the first few days ,he kept getting out of bed and so i tried the rapid return but to be honest it didnt work so in the end we decided that we would just leave a small light on then say goodnight ,kiss then close the door and it worked brilliantly.
its just trial and error

www.icbaby.com/pages/babydan_bed_guard.htm

you could get one of these for the bed. I think we put ds in his own bed a little past his 2nd birthday, loved it, thought he was really big. Also told him if he needed anything to shout one of us to help and to not get out of his bed in case he tripped over something in the dark. He was fine with that. Perhaps put a gate on the door if you think he might wander. Good idea to do it before the new baby.

Well, cheers for all the feedback, perhaps it won't be so bad after all! About to start looking into beds, and thinking it might be an idea to put a gate on his bedroom door so he can't sneak about in the night and flush bears down the loo or whatever he would get up to if he could...

Thanks again!