Cot to a bed

[Sarahgunny]

Hi
My daughter is 18 months and I am 5 months pregnant. Any advice on when to move her from her cot toa toddler bed?. Before or after the baby arrives?

hi, my daughter is 17 months and I am 5 months pregnant and my thought was to do it before the baby mainly because I feel that all big chsanges shouldn't happen just after the baby arrives.
Also I do not feel comfortable doing controlled crying and she has not learnt to settle herself yet (my fault entirely) and I feel that moving her to a bed will mean that I can use the putting them back to bed for about 7 million times to teach her to settle herself in a way that i feel comfortable with.
Lots of people will say keep her in a cot for as long as possible as when they are in a bed you can't contain them as easy but \i really need to teach her to settle herself as at the moment she is almost acting like a small baby does at night and I can't cope with that and the newborn.
If you have no trouble with her settling and/or sleeping then maybe you may prefer to keep her in a cot for the containment reason. Personally I would move her now

My ds is still in a cot at 2 1/2 - we debated moving him before dd was born (5 months ago) - but found a £40 cot in ikea, so decided we could invest in 2 cots!

How is your dds sleep at the minute? Think that's probably a good deciding factor, as per trintyrhino's post. DS was a bit pants, and had just sorted himself out in his cot, so I worked on the 'ain't broke, don't mess' policy. Most of my mates kids are into beds now, and seems like some adapt well/sleep better, and others go a bit pear-shaped, at least for a whle - but no obvious reasons for the differences!! (Trintyrhino, good luck with one of the good news stories!!)

If your main reason for the move is to free up the cot, might be worth checking that out if there's a ikea near you?? It's not a huge cot, but will last a good year or so.

I moved mine after the baby arrived - the baby slept in a moses basket in our room for a good few months so there was plenty of time for the older child to 'get used' to the baby before moving them.

Tbh, I find all this stuff about preparing siblings for new babies a bit of a non issue, especially when they are younger.

Ds1 was 19 months when ds2 arrived and ds2 was 21 months when ds3 arrived. I never had any issues and never really expected any. At this young age they just go with the flow.

I really worried about this but we just converted his cot to a bed with 20 month old 'helping and put a mesh side on it and he slept brilliantly. Both my friend's children did same on subsequent nights, its more of an issue for us than our little mites I think.

Thank you all for your advice - think I will leave it for now and wait until after baby is born.

Though does anyone still use a grobag in bed or are quilts better?

hi sg we used to use a grobag (or similar cos dd used to be good at kicking off her blankets; it depends on a) how warm your ds/dd (sorry) gets at night and b) how cold their room gets at night in winter.

sunnyside, i like your suggestion about the mesh side. dd likes helping me with things, especially when putting the washing in the machine, bless her little cottonsocks! it is something that has crossed my mind - particularly now she has started growing (again) like a little weed!