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Transition 18mth old from cot to bed?

2 replies

PoptyPinnnngggg · 07/01/2022 20:41

Hi, my 18 month old sleeps in a cot (which converts to a cot bed). She is very wriggly and moves around a lot, but overall she sleeps well in it and the wriggling around doesn't seem to disturb her that much.

She used to sleep well in a travel cot, but doesn't anymore- she seems too big for it and her wriggling is more constrained so she wakes frequently when she finds herself stuck in a corner, and generally has unsettled nights in the travel cot. So we no longer use it, and have always been able to use a full cot when we are away from home which she sleeps well in even when we are away from home.

Anyway, we have booked a holiday for early March (so she'll be 20 months) but they only have travel cots available. We are dreading the disrupted sleep that the travel cot is likely to bring so are considering transitioning her to a bed in time for the hol.

I feel like our sleep would be even more disrupted in a bed if we keep having to put her back in bed (I expect she will fall out of bed judging by her wriggles right now- so would put the mattress on the floor if we did put her in a bed), so maybe the travel cot is the lesser of two evils? Would adding sides to the bed be better, or is she likely to wriggle out of them and fall out (we could take sides with us on our holiday).

We have two months to try and transition her to a bed- any suggestions about how to do this? Or should we just leave the transition until she's more 'ready' and suck up the joys of a travel cot for our holiday?

She currently sleeps in a sleeping bag, as she wriggles out of sheets/duvets.

Thanks!

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SittingOvation · 07/01/2022 22:12

Personally, I'd definitely go for the travel cot. I can't see there being enough space in your hotel room to put the mattress on the floor next to the base.

Plus your DD will be excited to be somewhere new and will want to explore. Trying to get her to stay in the bed will be a complete nightmare!

We eventually had to put a barrier up on our DDs floor bed because she'd even fall out of that but at least she was safe in her own room with nothing dangerous/especially interesting so would just sleep on the rug! Who knows what your DD could get up to in the night?

PoptyPinnnngggg · 08/01/2022 20:04

I'd forgotten about space in the room! Travel cot it will be I think. Unless anyone else comes along with any other ideas.

Thanks!

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