Hmmm. Would it be madness to move my 16 month old to a bed just so I don't have to buy a second cot?

[NorktasticNinja]

DC2 is due at the beginning of June (when DD will be 18 1/2 months) and I'm starting to stress about the sleeping arrangements. DC2 will sleep in our room at night for the first six months anyway but DD started having her daytime naps in the cot at 2 or 3 months and it'd be great if DC2 wanted to do that too

I really don't want DD to feel she's had to give up her cot for the new baby but I'd rather not buy a second one either... So, I decided ages ago that the best thing to do would be to move her to a bed about 2 months before my EDD but we're nearly there now and I'm starting to wobble.

Anyone got any wise words?

e bay

i got a nearly new cot on e bay for about £12

My dd3 was in a bed from about 13 months mainly as she hated the cot and wanted to be in the same room as her sisters, co incidently it also freed up the cot for dd4 when she is old enough to go in it.

search e bay for ikea cot,

the are smaller than normal but do the job short term,

if you get lucky on a collection only one it might only cost 99p

DS1 went into a bed at 2 and i recall that was quite young compared to most of my friends.

You may be lucky but my ds just kept getting out of bed all the time which did drive me a little mad.

Good luck!

You could always buy a super cheap cot from ikea to tide you over.

where are you in the country? I'm (literally) just about to freecycle a cot....

Ds went into a full size bed at 15 months, & dd1 into a toddler bed at about the same age, both in order to free up the cot!

It was fine both times.

I moved DS1 into a bed at about 17/18 months for the same reasons.
was fine.
hardly used those fold down side thingies so don't bother with them!
he only fell out about 3 times - hardly woke him either!

Or get a cheap cot as others have said.

I would rather move her to a bed if I can, just not sure how realistic it is. It's good to hear it's worked for a couple of people though

Ebay is out as there is no Ebay.nl, there are second hand sites here but they are pretty expensive TBH.

FAQ - sweet of you, but unfortunately I'm not in the UK at all! There's no freecycle (type thing here)...

You should set one up! just kidding.

anyway, she'll be fine. you could wait a little bit longer as baby may be in with you for a bit anyway?
And i was SET on the 2 months before thing but 1 would have been fine.

I think it really depends on your child. Friend's dc went to bed first night in new bed and didn't move all night and waited awake in bed in the morning until her mummy came in.

However my monkey like ds1 stayed in his bed for about 2 mins - but within a couple of weeks he was used to it. Did have the odd night when i'd find him curled up asleep on the floor like a puppy though.

We put the sides down on our cot bed when dd was quite young, because she started climbing out and I was worried about her falling and hurting herself. If I hadn't had a cotbed, I would have put her in a bed with a folding keepy in thingy - which we used for ages and found invaluable.

I bought the 2nd cot (although only a 14 months gap and mine never really fitted in the moses basket)

a friend didn't and from the age of 18 month until now he is 3.5 she has had the run around every night and he stopped napping.

Just buy a cheap cot, it's not worth the risk IMHO

i bought a moses basket for DC2 (DC1 had gone straight into cot) and she is still in it 6 months later so we didn't need a second cot. but then i have very small children.

DD2 went into a bed at 14 months. Hers was far too high to climb out of (she did have a rail and a mattress on the floor 'just in case' as well). My friend moved hers into a bed about 17 months - he just never thought to climb out! was much easier than moving DD1 into a bed at 24months.

Try her in a bed for a week or two, or go down the travel cot/ ikea cot route. Or maybe get her a cotbed so she has more room now and a nice bed to move into whenever she is ready without any of the stress?

Actually we did a reverse version of the cotbed thing when we were in your situation. The cotbed is still in use now as a bed and was worth every penny.

Have you a bed already? If not, could you get a cotbed? Or just put a mattress on the floor.

Borrow another cot from a friend who has one stashed in the loft?

I would pay £100 for ONE amazing night's sleep - so IMO if a cot = better sleeping then get another one!

I think it depends on the child TBH.

DD is 14mths and nowhere near ready for a bed but her older brother was at the same/similar age.

Think mattress on floor good idea...

we moved dd1 to a bed to free up teh cot for dd2. It makes sense. Go ahead and see how it goes.

It depends on her really. I moved DD1 into a bed about 6 wks before DD2 was born for exactly that reason but then she was a little older (22 mnths at the time). We had no problem with it at all. DD2 climbed out of her cot at around 17 / 18 months so we had to take the sides off for safety and she was fine at that age, but then she was a great sleeper and had been walking since 11 months so no trouble at all getting in and out of bed etc.

Honestly, if I was in your position again and your DD is still sleeping well in the cot and not showing signs of climbing out etc I would stick with it for now and buy a second cot or cotbed (cheap / 2nd hand?). The thing about transferring to a bed is suddenly they are free. They run around and cause trouble - jump in and out of bed, come and find you, pull out all their books and toys and play and around for hours, afternoon naps (I assume that at 16 mnths your DD still naps) become much more precarious and unreliable. It can be maddening, sure the novelty wears off and things settle back to normal after a while - but do you want that right now? And what about when you have the new baby and crying and night feeds?? What if DD wakes up and starts coming to have a look and see what's going on?? I don't know. Certainly 16 months isn't necessarily too early to move to a bed, but just think about practicalities and whether it might make your life easier to get a second cot.

Ooops, I didn't mean to vanish on this one. Life's a bit hectic here ATM... Thanks everyone for all the input

I'm really not sure what to do now, DD isn't trying to escape from her cot but TBH I'd seen that as a positive for moving her to a bed. In as much as she doesn't see her sleeping place as somewhere to be escaped from yet IYSWIM. Maybe I should just try her with a bed and then get a second cot if it all goes pear shaped?

I don't have a bed yet. I was thinking of getting her what's called a 'junior bed' here (70 x 150 cm) because that would fit in DC2s tiny room later, is that what people mean by a cot bed?

Her room is pretty much baby proofed and there's a stair gate on the door. I'd just need to put some cupboard/drawer locks on and she'd not bed able to cause any trouble or hurt herself in there if she was up without me knowing about it.

Pregnancy is such a bugger for making one totally over think everything

What about looking in local newspapers for a second hand moses basket or cot. You would only need to buy a new matress. Or prehaps you could get a travel cot.

all 3 of my dc were in a bed by 13mths. Never had an issue with the going to bed just make sure you have a stairgate or gate on their room.

DS was in a cotbed by 12 months, due to an exceptional talent for climbing which scared me senseless! Strangely, he didn't figure out that he could escape from the bed for a very long time.

We've never bothered with a stairgate on the door either, just one over the stairs as DS and I both have a sleepwalking habit.

Also have heard from others, if you put those side on the bed to start with, they 'assume' it's fixed and can't get out, as if it's a cot.

(a cotbed is just a bigger sized cot that the sides come off so it turns into a junior bed).