From cot to toddler bed, input?

[Qwertyguerty]

So my DD is nearly 2. She sleeps still in her ikea cot happily. Has her teddy at night, a sheep nightlight she likes to turn on herself and a blanket on colder evenings. We dress her in pyjamas.

My question is about when have people moved from cot to toddler bed?

She wakes up at 5.30am regularly no matter what we do but it's fine cos for months she's been happily talking to herself and playing with teddy for half hour to an hr some mornings, then she'll get bored and that's when she'll call for us.

We keep her door closed to keep light out and have a sound thingy to hear her.

What happens if she's not happy to stay in bed like she has for a while now (giving us a treasured extra bit of time in bed) and starts walking around her room? I guess I'd be scared she hurts herself specially in the dark. I have so many questions but can't seem to form them.

Hoping to read other transition stories that might help us decided when and how to do it

when we transitioned my dc, we had one of these on one side of their bed, and the other side against the wall. this doesn't span the whole length of the bed, and so there is a length at the end that isn't covered by the railing, who's purpose is to stop the child falling out of bed. we told my dc that if they wanted to get up in the morning, they could carefully get out of bed at the end and play quietly with the toy i left out on the floor until we woke up. we put one of these next to their bed and told them that when they were playing in the morning, they could press it to get light so they could see. it was easy for them to use and the light wasn't too bright.

sorry forgot to add that we transitioned them around age 2

Ooh Sleep, thank you, these have been bookmarked!

I think we will need to wait till she can def understand to stay in the bed though!

Personally I'm not planning on doing it until she starts climbing out!

My son went into a normal bed with a side rail at 20 months when my daughter was born (he then moved up a floor and she went into the nursery). The side rail was to keep him from falling out, not to keep him confined in his bed.
Let her get up explore her room - can she reach the light switch? I let my son get up and if he wanted came into our room. My husband was up before 6 anyway. I was just resigned to early mornings. He’s 16 now still gets up early (8-9am) for a teenager!

Just moved DD (2.2) into an ikea extendable bed to get rid of the cot for a while ready for DC2 in the new year. We had similar worries but (fingers crossed!) a week in she’s been fab! Same routine, no getting out of bed when left in the evening and just sits in bed shouting our names when she wakes up instead of getting out and pottering around. V surprised as she’s normally always on the go and has loads of toys in her room I’m sure it’s just conditioning since being in the cot! Go for it and see what happens :) good luck!

Peach, I was kinda thinking that but seeing if anything inspires us. It only occurred to me last week

Pip, I still can't even face 5.30am after all this time haha. She can't reach the light switch at all, they're quite high in our flat sadly.

We transitioned at 21 months purely due to potty training. If we weren't and he wasn't climbing out, we probably would have left him in the cot 😳😳😳

We safeguarded the room, ( we let him play freely in her room in the day, while watching on the monitor what he would climb up, on or in and adjusted accordingly )

Bought a grow clock, ( don't get up before the sun, popped it in his room a week before we took the side of the cotbed and didn't let him out of his room until the sun come up)

At bedtime didn't make him stay in his bed as it just frustrates them to the point of not being tired, we just kept putting him back in every 10 mins or so, he soon got the jist.

He doesn't shout for me until the sun has come up at 6.30.

I thought it Would be a massive drama, but we did a week prep using gro clock and not going in until the sun comes up and a week after that it wasn't long and back to a nice routine.

I only transitioned my son when he was almost 3!
Although he was physically capable of climbing out of the cot, we had him in grobags so that prevented him climbing out. Then, when the weather changed and we couldn’t really keep a grobag on him anymore, I knew it was time to transition.
Surprisingly he plays quietly until we are ready to get up whereas he was always shouting for us much earlier in the cot!