How did you manage transition from cot to bed?

[Lovage]

DS (2) needs to go into a bed fairly soon. He can nearly climb out of the cot and we'll need it for new baby fairly soon (due mid Oct, but will prob put them in cot fairly quickly as its a bedside one which is easier for night feeds than a moses basket).

This involves moving room, as his current room is too small to hold a bed. Also probably changing from grobags to a duvet.

Any tips for how and when to manage the transition? We were thinking of doing it about 6 weeks before the baby's due (after holiday disruptions all over), but I'm wondering about waiting until we actually need the cot for the baby, which might not be til about Christmas. But would that make sibling jealousy/feeling of displacement worse?

Also, we do rely on him not being able to get out of the cot to get him to go to sleep at the moment (obv that won't work once he can climb out, but he can't quite yet). I can't imagine how he'll ever go to sleep if he's free-range. He's not one of these (mythical?!) children who gets sleepy and is happy to go to bed.

We gave him the duvet instead of a grobag last night, as a way of making not everything change at once. He loved it (bright pictures of animals) but it made going to sleep worse than usual as he was too excited. But I expect that will settle down. We could move his cot (and his things) into the new room before moving him into the bed, but I'm not sure if that would help. He loves the single bed that's in his new room, but in an excited way, not a sleep-inducing way!

bump

We moved our DD from her cot to a bed a few months ago, although she was three then! She loved her cot! I moved her room around so that it looked really different and made a big fuss of the duvet etc. She was awful to start with (still is a bit really) as she keeps getting out of bed and coming downstairs but she is gradually getting better. Just persevere (sp) and it should come good!

I don't know how much your DS understands bartering and bribery but I moved my DS into a bed about 2 months ago and he will stay in it (and falls off to sleep) if I tell him that by staying in bed like a big boy I will allow all doors to be left open. We live in a bungalow with his door directly next to the door of our open plan living bit so he can hear absolutely everything going on and knows he's not deserted. It does mean we have to keep the noise down for a bit but it seems to be working. I've not yet had to carry out the 'if you get up we'll have to shut the doors' or even threaten it.
Good luck!
Oh, and I'd suggest doing it asap so you can get through the teething troubles before new LO comes along...we've done it in prep for a Dec baby.

I would do things one at a time and gradually, but would advise on getting him settled in big bed before new baby arrives so he doesn't feel his bed has been nicked.

I moved dd1 into a big bed when she was 16 months, as her sister was due three months later and I wanted her to settle in big bed first, and get used to her cot being in our room etc. I was lucky, she was fine !

But I'm afraid she was a mythical sleepy child who used to grab her andy pandy doll and troop off to her bed before seven pm !

DD2 was 19 months when she went into big bed, this was because we moved house and I couldn#t be bothered to put cot bed back up again, plus she had climbed out of it once, so it seemed the right time.

She was a pickle for a few nights, just kep coming downstairs but we let her get all way to bottom then put her back to bed, saying nothing, she soon got bored and tired and didn't bother again !

Good luck !

I would do this sooner rather than later, agree with Chankins you can't appear to chuck him out of his cot because the new baby needs it.

Stairgate on the bedroom door NOW if he's about to climb out of the cot - then he'll never realise he can jump out of bed and come and find you - just that he needs to call you from the door if he needs you.

If you have a lively dc then if you don't do this he may well wander the house when you are asleep - or worse - come in and find you every 20 mins at 2am! Or everytime the new baby cries.

Or start shutting the door?

Buy a bed guard and use it right from the start so the transition is not too exciting.

And get rid of the cot at least 2-3 months before the baby to allow time for "forgetting" that it was ever his cot.

We're very soon going to be at this stage with dd - sooner than I would like - as she's plotting escape routes out of her cotbed.

With ds it was pretty straightforward - bed time story & "if you stay in your bed all night we'll..." (offering whatever we were going to do anyway e.g. go to the park tomorrow). Then just withdrew the bribery to focus on being such a good boy.

DD I suspect will be a different kettle of fish. Her verbal understanding is not so good, she's less keen to please & she just seems 'younger' than ds although actually is older now than ds was.

Think the child gate on her bedroom door is a very good idea.

Hmm - may have left it too late - only 6 weeks til baby's due! Although I don't think he'd have 'forgotten' the cot even if we had done it ages ago - he still remembers things that happened 4 or 5 months ago.

I don't think keeping him in the room is going to be the problem - he's used to sleeping with his door shut (we leave ours open), but I'm imagining he'll create complete havoc with all the things in his room (clothes, books, nappies etc) once he can get at them.

Have given up on duvet for the meantime - he never lies down calmly enough for it to stay over him, so we keep having to go in last thing to put it over him. I suppose there's no reason he can't still be in the grobag in the big bed - might even hobble him a bit!

Not really too late as if you dismantle the cot and use a moses basket then it'll be a while till he sees it again.

Use a bed guard anyway as that may help keep him lying down long enough to fall asleep?

And as you already keep the door shut he should be well contained - unless he can manage the handle!

If he likes the grobag stay with it. I wish I had for DS1 as he didn't get the duvet thing for a while.

Definitely a bed guard, and you will need to move some stuff out of his way at first. PArticularly , creams etc. or he may have great fun puring those out