Transition from cot into bed

[londongirl12]

In the new year, we're planning on taking the sides down on our DS3 cot bed, and turning it into a bed. He's doing so well with potty training and we need to get the nights sorted. I have a few questions that I would like your advice on
At the moment, DS3 sleeps in totally darkness. He always has done, and sleeps through the night from 1930 ish until 0730 ish (apart from the odd crying nightmare). As he'll be able to get out of bed with the sides down, do I put a nightlight in his room? But will this affect his sleep?
At the moment, most of his toys are downstairs, however he has a few things in his room. I'm worried I'll hear him at 3am playing with his cars . It's fine when he's been confined into his cot!

We recently moved our DD (2.5) into a cot bed with no sides and put a night light in her room to try and make it feel a bit less scary. She does get up and play with her toys but will take herself back off to bed when she's ready to sleep. A small, dim night light shouldn't affect his sleep too much but if it does, the novelty will wear off after a few days once he gets used to it.

My tips:

• Put a stairgate on the door so they can't go wandering at night (unless you close the door to the bedroom)
• Remove anything that might be a potential hazard or that you don't want your DC to play/mess with - for us it was a bag of nappies that DD decided to empty every evening, or a toy she'd been using to climb up into her rocking chair.
• Talk to him beforehand for a few days to get him used to the idea - prepping will help!
• Put child locks on drawers/wardrobe if necessary - again, my DD likes to go into the wardrobe and have a good ferret in everything.
• Remove any noisy toys - my DD has a habit of playing with one very loud airplane toy in the early hours!

Thank you, they're good tips! We've been so used to uninterrupted nights and good sleep, that it makes me nervous to go back to not sleeping again

We didn’t put a nightlight in when DD moved to a bed but we did put a rolled up duvet on the floor so if she rolled out then she’d end up on that rather than the floor; I think it happened a couple of times and she didn’t even wake up but generally they seem to manage ok.
We made a big deal about DDs big girl bed and made it as exciting as possible.
She’s never actually gotten out of bed until the morning; even when she wakes up she’ll call to us from her room. We have a stair gate on her bedroom door as I was worried about her getting up and wandering around and I also made sure that wasn’t anything in her room that i wouldn’t want her getting hold of.

We transitioned DS at around 20 months.
We had no issues. He didn't even seem to notice the swap!
We kept everything the same as in bedtime routine.
Similar, sleeps in the pitch black, we didn't change that,
Generally sleeps 8pm - 7 30.
Weve put a stair gate on his door, when he wakes he just plays in his room, he's only for a few books and a noahs arc wooden boat in there so not too much choice.
He's was 2 in September, and has dropped naps completely so once he's down, he's down for the night.

Oh ok, so maybe I'll try keeping it dark, and only put a night light in there if it's necessary. I think we'll just have to see how we get on. He's started having dry nappies at night, so that seems positive