Cot or Cot-bed?

[thelady]

A little background info:

Our first is due in December. We're currently living in the equivalent of a one-bedroom flat as we live in at the hotel we run.

We've been offered first refusal on a cot-bed, wardrobe and chest of drawers which is either identical or very similar to the one pictured at Additions Direct

Can anyone enlighten me on the relative merits of cot vs cot-bed, please?

We had a cot then we bought her a toddler bed, now she is into a single bed. We found this worked fgor us.

Advantage of cot-bed - it lasts a child longer
However, if you have a 2nd child within a couple of years you'll probably move db1 into a bed and use the cotbed for the new baby, so it wouldn't make much difference. Although you would then have a little bed for the second one to move into in time, IYSWIM.

cot beds tend to be larger which has been a good thing for us as ds wis a big chap and also as it turns into a bed you will get longer use out of it. HOWEVER we are expecting another baby who will need the cot just as ds will be ready for us to turn it into a bed so we will have to buy him either a bed as we have furniture that matches cot.
So i guess what i'm saying is if you are likely to want another child in the next couple of years just a cot may be the way forward

Congrats on imminent arrival!. We bought a cot bed because his room is quite small. Cotbeds are smaller than regular single beds so we thought that this would be better until he needed a bigger one.
We will prob buy a regular bed when he is about 4/5
I thought this was more cost efficient. Not sure why now - it seems like such a long time ago!!

Thanks for info and links. My searching skills were obviously not up to the task.

Well dd aged 2.3 is still in her cot bed.Tried making it into a bed and was a nightmare so VERY glad we were able to return it to cotbed atatus as it is plenty big for her.

I have a cot bed for my DS-i think it would last him longer and there will be no need to buy a bed at a later stage

Cot bed. Our cotbed lasted DD1 until she was 3. DD2 has now got it - and DD1 has gone into a proper bed. Saves on storage space (what do you do with a cot after they have finished with it and before no 2 arrives??). Also, I think it makes the transition to the bed much easier!