Best time to introduce a bed for DS when new baby is only a few months away?

[ilikeyoursleeves]

My DS (1.5 years) sleeps in a grobag in his cot in his own room with no problems. DS2 is due in July this year and will be in our room for hopefully at least 5-6 months (in a crib). Originally I thought of waiting to get DS1 a proper bed around Xmas time as that would be the point when DS2 would go into the cot (they will be sharing a room). However I'm now wondering whether we should just get DS a bed now for him to be used to being in it before DS2 even appears so he doesn't think that DS2 is stealing his cot! I think DS2 might have naps in the cot so DS1 might be a bit narked if he realises DS2 is in 'his' cot, so at least if DS1 starts sleeping in his own bed that might help? Or would it? Also I'm not sure when I would introduce a duvet either....

Any advice for when your DC went into a proper bed if they were sharing a room with the younger DC taking over their cot? Thanks

I had a similar problem with my two, an 18 mnth age gap.

I decided to go down the getting her used to it first route, glad I did as it took a while!

To begin with she refused to go in the bed, so I tried putting a duvet in her cot instead of usual sleepbag to get her used to that first. Didn't work, she wanted sleepbag. It actually took a few months, finally we had to remove the cot from the room so it wasn't an option, by which time poor ds had outgrown the moses basket and was stuck in the travel cot waiting for dd to get used to bed.

Wierdly one day she just decided she liked the bed after all, although still insisted on sleepbag under her duvet!

Good luck.

My 2 x ds are exactly 2 years apart. We didn't know at the time that ds2 would be in our room for more than a year (awful sleeper), though I'm not sure that would have changed what we did.

This was to put the bed into ds1's bedroom not long after we came home with ds2 and tell ds1 that he could move into it when he wanted. He did almost straight away, but happy on the basis that he could go back into the cot if he wanted to. He stayed in the grobag in the bed for a short time and then graduated to a duvet. It all went swimmingly, mostly because ds1 is very reflective and we told him about what we were planning before any of it happened. This meant that there were no vestigial ownership issues when ds2 FINALLY moved into his room, where they now sleep v happily together. Well, until ds2 wakes up at 5, that is.

Only thing I'd say is to do as much as possible to make the transition seem your ds1's choice rather than anything imposed. And, even if you make a thing of him being a big boy, let him have enough opportunities to enjoy the nice things about still being a little boy while he's getting used to the idea - kisses, cuddles and lots of 1-to-1 time.

Good luck.

we did it by going on holiday, we went to france and she had to sleep in a bed. when we were away my mum came round and took away the cot and put a bed in her room.
when we got back we made a big deal of taking her shopping for new sheets and stuff.
she was fine and we never had any problems.
when ds came along 4 months later we put the cot in our room and she's not really bothered by it. she likes to get in it sometimes but only to play rather than to sleep.

Thanks for the advice! We are going on holiday next weekend so I might try DS out in a bed instead of a travel cot and see how he gets on

Same boat here. 19mth gap when new baby arrives next month. I'm hoping moving her name in little wooden letters to her bed and some bright colours for her quilt will do the trick!!!