Did moving from cot to bed improve your toddlers sleep or make it worse?

[Londonlady92]

My DD will be 3 in October and we've had night wakings for 3 months for no apparent reason, probably a phase.

But thinking of moving her to a bed as shes almost 3 and have nothing to lose.

Did you find sleep improved in a bed or got worse?

My son pushed it with really stalling bedtime at a similar age. Thing is, I never let him win. We installed a baby gate on his bedroom door at 2.5 so he couldn't get out and I was quite clear he had to stay in his room. Sometimes there was tears, but he gave in in the end. Baby gate came off now over half a year ago.

Does anyone think I should put her to bed later? I always assumed because she doesn't nap i should put her to bed earlier but should I be putting her to bed later?!

When do you put her to bed. My 3.5 year old doesn't nap and sleeps for 11.5/12 hours usually. So he goes to bed at 9/9.30 and gets up at 9

@Opalfeet I aim for 7/7.30. I keep reading that her not napping is why she sleeps so badly?!

@Londonlady92 wasn't a problem with us at all. My little one decided he wouldn't nap at age 2.5, I was very sad. We had a couple of sleep regressions- cot to bed and then potty training. He's fine now and shares a bedroom with his brother and they both sleep through. I did find 2.5 to just after 3 pretty challenging sleep wise. There's lots of new things...stalling bedtime, the dark etc

She slept better in her bed last night juet hope it wasn't a one off novelty!!

Jumping on here sorry bit what's the difference between changing from the cotbed element (with side down) to a single bed. Just noticing a few people staying it improved at single bed point. Thank you

@Sticklebricks444 lots more room im guessing!

So another update the bed went well for 2 nights now its worse than ever, constantly getting out of bed 100 times. I'm out of ideas! :( :(

We put stairgate on the room and did controlled crying. Appreciate that this is a method you might not like, but at 2.5 it seemed more temper tantrum than distressed crying 🤷‍♀️

@Opalfeet im fine with CC at this age she is not in pain or distressed she is just pushing boundaries my problem is my 6 year old has to put up with the screaming. How did you do CC with the gate? We have one too i worry shell never calm down!

We had two hellish nights and I had a newborn too. I just followed it to the letter. 1 minute intervals, leading to the bed and settling and then leaving and going up one more min every time. It worked for a while, and we had a bit of peace. Until he decided to wake us up because he didn't want to wee in his pull up and wanted to go on the potty.

@Opalfeet when you say settle what do you mean? I read the super nanny way and you just put them back in bed without saying anything but not sure if its best?

You don't have to say anything, but with controlled crying you need to make sure they don't get too upset so ensure they've stopped crying before you leave. Otherwise they've no hope of calming down and going to sleep.

I think I tried the leading back to bed thing prior to that, but he just kept on getting out of bed and it was becoming a game

I think he would have done it all night

With children 1 and 3 it made sleep worse, with child 2 it improved it. So that’s not much help