Your words of wisdom required.

[malachismum]

Hi I come on here for your advice from time to time and have found it a great help.
I have a son who is 17 months and am expecting another baby in August (a very long time off) and I was wondering about moving my ds from the nursery and into the spare room. I think I should do it a couple of months before baby is born to allow for adjustment but the other thing is should I move him while still in his cot ( which we will need for baby at some point) or get him used to his new bed first and then move him? Im worried that moving rooms and then changing to a bed is quite a lot of adjustment and not forgetting that he'll be 25 months when baby is born and then theres potty training too, seems like a lot for him???
Im worrying already, thats a good sign

Get his new room ready for him and let him get used to it gradually, move some of his toys into it and let him play in his " "big boy" room and talk to him about his "big boy bed" and see how he gets on with it. Potty training............ Do it when you are ready and when he is ready. No point doing it if you are tired and not in the mood for cleaning up accidents due to the new arrival.

I'm expecting our second in January, when DS will be 21mo. He's still in the cot and will be for the foreseeable future - I'm planning on having the new baby in with us in a rocking cradle (bit sturdier than a moses basket, so should last longer!) for at least 6 months, then DS will be 27mo (at least).

If we're still in our current house (two bedrooms) they'll share a room at some point.

As for potty training, he can do that this summer if he's ready, or next - really not going to worry about that.

I do know that DS is in no way ready to go into a bed yet, so that's one thing I definitely won't be hurrying!

Can you leave DS in his current room and put the baby in the spare room when they're ready?

I kept my older one in their cot when the baby arrived because the baby was in the moses basket for a good month, if not more. I only moved my toddler once the baby was too big for the basket. Just put baby in cot and toddler in bed - end of.

Have done this twice (have 3 boys with age gaps 19 months and 21 months) and never had any problem with subsequent baby arrival in any way, shape or form.

Also, there is no need to potty train at 25 months. Ds1 and ds2 were 2 yrs 9-10 months and both cracked it in a matter of days - there's an advantage to leaving it later! Don't even bother thinking about that - do it when you're ready.

i would do lots of talking to him about how exciting big boys beds are and get him involved in choosing the bed and colours for his room, then see how he feels about using it. both my boys were potty trained the week after their third birthdays and the hv told me i had done well at that age! so please dont worry about that, it doesnt need to be done for quite some time

I thought about putting the baby in the spare room but its quite a bit bigger than the nursery and I think my ds will need the room. My son is very tall and although happy in his cot he bangs and crashes against the bars a lot.
So you think move him into the spare room and into a big bed at the same time. Should all this be done before the baby arrives so that he doesnt feel pushed out?
I have a crib for baby that I used for ds but it only lasted him 4 months and he grew out of it!!

Great so potty training can wait Hurray and I should move him into his new room in his cot and then when I need it for baby put ds in his big boys bed.
No messing, that is probably best. It is a while off yet but worth thinking about.

Moving rooms: we did it a couple of months before too. We made a big fuss of going to Ikea together, putting his art up on his new walls, sleeping in his big boy bed etc. He was so proud of it. We shut up the nursery and didn't open the door for about a month (not while he was around anyway). So by the time we got around to doing it up for the new baby he'd no jealousy. He enjoyed helping with doing up the nursery, especially picking a painting he'd done to put up on the wall for the baby to look at!

Potty Training: Just don't think about it. Your ds will potty train when he wants. Having the new baby really helped us out - because we didn't force ds1 into potty training as we really wanted him to stay in nappies to make life easier for us all! Then one day (when the baby was 8 weeks old) he said "hurry up daddy and get my nappy back on, I've got a wee wee coming." So I made the decision that nappies were just a waste of money. We had maybe two "accidents" and on day 3 we made a two and a half hour car journey with no problem!

ds1 was 26 months when ds2 was born, btw.

At 17mo, he's not going to understand the fuss about a new bed, etc. If he's crashing around in his cot, he'll fall out of bed (I'm dreading putting DS in a bed as he moves 360 in the night several times!).

How long are you planning to keep the baby in your room with you? Agree it sounds like the best room for your DS is the bigger one though. I'd move him in there in the cot first.

I kept ds in with me for the first 4 months ( we'd planned on doing it for 6) because he grew out of the cradle so put him in the cot in the nursery. So I guess the same applys for this baby too.

my mum is a big believer in telling kids that they dont need their cot/nappy/bottle/dummy now because the baby has that stuff and they are big boys/girls. i think it worked for her but i really hated my little bro and not sure if that sort of thing was the cause