When have you gone from cot to bed?

[PurplePest]

Am thinking of when would be a good time to convert my DD's cotbed into a bed. She's 20 months and I was thinking of doing this in a couple of months. Is this too early?

Can your DD climb out of the cot? If not then I would leave her where she is.....it's the safest place really. My DS started climbing out of his cot at about 2 yrs so we changed his cotbed into a bed as that was safer for him then.

Can you explain why it seems like a good time to convert into a bed?
My DS is 2.8 and is still in his cot bed which is quite unusual at his age. However, he sleeps well and shown no interest at all in climbing out so I am planning to leave the bars on for now.

I put DS into his big bed at 17 months as was preg with DS2 and wanted to get him settled there long before the baby arrived. Was absolutely fine. In fact he slept much better as he stopped banging into the bars and waking himself up.
He was also too young for it to occur to him to go walkies in the night and now he's 2.2 and that is still not a problem as the bed is not something new.
If you want to do it now then go for it.

Thanks for your posts.

kidcreole - my DD can't climb out of her cot (well, she probably could but doesn't seem to have the inclination!) and seems to be happy there.

wheresmypaddle - not sure why I thought this was a good time. She's my first so simply didn't have a clue as to when parents make the decision to move from cot to bed!

bubbaluv - my DD is always up against the bars too! Like the idea of her getting used to being in a bed that she can climb down from...

I wasn't going to make the change for the next couple of months so have got some time to think...I don't think she's suddenly decide to throw herself out of her cot...she's quite patient waiting for me to get to her when she wakes etc.

Thanks again for your posts!

Ds1 went from cot to normal bed at 18 months. He was climbing out of the cot and it was needed soon after that for ds2.
He never fell out of bed, but we had to use a stairgate across his door to keep him in his bedroom (repid return didn't work for us).

Ds2 is still in a cot at 21 months. I tried him in a normal bed (in the hope that he would sleep better) but he kept falling out and his sleep got even worse. He'll be staying in a cot until he can climb out, although it is starting to look a bit of a squash in there.

we moved dd at 25m - we went on holiday and she utterly rejected the travel cot in favour of the single bed that was in the room.

had been thinking of making the switch anyway (new baby due Jan) so it seemed provident and we ran with it.

thanks mrsjohndeere and mrs badger

Our dd stayed in her cot, with the side bars removed on one side and a bit of impromptu reinforcement where the bars were taken off till she was going on 5.

We only have one, so no new baby in the queue, and her room was small, so didn't see any point in using up the space for a full sized bed till she didn't fit in the little one any more. She slept in 'normal' beds at grandparents quite happily from about age 2.

(I think this was more common in the past - cf Milly Molly Mandy who must be about 6 when she moves out of the cot in her parents room in one of the stories.)

19 months. Sprout was obsessed with big beds and started screaming and trying to climb out of his cot if he woke up in the night. We had a lovely plan for moving him at 2 but he made it blatantly obvious he was ready before then. Scary week of attempted climbing while we decorated and waited for the new single bed to arrive, then he moved in and has slept much better since. He does visit in the night but he goes back to sleep much better and no tears. He has only fallen out once (onto his dad who was lying next to the bed playing on the DS keeping an eye while the calpol kicked in cos sprout was poorly and had a high temp). Apparently it was quite a comedy moment!

So make plans - but be prepared for the little un to have their own ideas.

BTW, DS fell out a couple of times, but didn't actually wake up. I'd goi in to check and he'd be curled up on the floor with his toy monkey tucked under him. Soooo cute!

I'm pretty sure my DD will fall out of bed a few times when I do decide to change over...she's such a wriggler

We did it at 18 months for DD, and were reassured by the 6" drop for the cot bed. She loved it, but it was during the summer and she slept behind the door for most of the first couple of months beside the mirrored wardrobe where she played with her reflection until she fell asleep . It was warm enough, so we weren't worried, and she stayed in bed when it got colder. Moving her toy box into her room also helped alleviate any early-morning visits.

We moved her into a proper single bed at 2.8 - when she was confident about getting in and out of it unaided and when she had a new room in advance of #2 arriving.

my ds was 19 mths as he was not liking the bars and wouldn't settle well we used big duvet turned side ways tucked in from outside of the bed and the opening by the wall he never once fell as duvet held him in

Well, DS is 3.4 and still in his cot!

We only moved DD2 into a bed when she declared she no longer wanted night nappies, aged 3.2.

I don't see the point of moving if they aren't trying to climb out, aren't too big for it and are happy with it, personally

DD was 2yrs 2 months...tried it a few months before but she got upset and wanted the bars back

DS is 20 months, new baby due next spring when he's 2 - not a hope in hell is he getting a bed before then! He is the craziest sleeper ending up all over the place....and I'm not convinced the little monkey will stay in it...which is not what I'll need with a newborn to feed in the night. Unless he starts climbing of course......

My DS is 2.2 and he shows no signs of climbing (he's in a grobag anyway) and I am going to leave him there as long as physically possible. If he didn't have bars, I'm sure he'd be out of the door in about two seconds and down the stairs (he's very good at door handles and stairs....)