advice on transition from cot to bed

[morph]

Ds is 2 now and we have bought bunk beds due for arrival end of june. Ds loves his cot and sleeps through every night and has done since he was 6 weeks (aah we are spoilt)he goes to bed at 7 and plays for a while and then falls asleep (about 7.30 and we love the time we spend together at night. I am NOT convinced he would stay in a bed so successfully and am beginning to wonder how to get him to do that. He also wakes early in the morning and demands 'up' from about 6am (until I eventually surface at 6.30, with no bars, 'up' would end up being at 5 I am sure of it! Help how did anyone else do it!

We put a stair gate on the bedroom door (toysrus do a narrow one). Also in the beginning we put the cot up a level and the side down so dd still felt like she was in a cot but could get in and out safely, then we put her in the top bunk with the protective side outwards. She help dh make the bed and was very proud that daddy had made it for her and we couldn't get her out of it! Still used the stair gate though for the morning!

Ds is 20 months and went into a 'big bed' about a months ago as he was starting to get stroppy about going upto bed, so we assumed it must be the bars 'caging him in'. We put a stair gate on his bedroom door, and for the first week or so he really kicked up, but we are not sure whether he would have done that anyway if he was still in his cot. Anyway it took about a week and now he goes to bed fine again. .(please don't let me be tempting fate by saying this!) We also bought his favourite character duvet covers and leave books in his bed for him to look at if he is a) not tired on going to bed or b) Up early.

He probably will kick up about the change, but I'm sure its because its all new, it wont take long to get him back to normal.

I'd go with the stair gate on the bedroom door. Ds (2 and 1/2) has just gone in to a bed, and although we don't have a stairgate (he'd be able to climb over it), we do "tether" his door shut with stretchies (hooks on strong elastic). It doesn't mean that he stays in bed - in fact the room can look like a hurricane hit it in the morning, and he tends to fall asleep in all sorts of different places, but we just go in later, once we're sure he'll be asleep (often longer than we think!) and put him back in to bed.

He also doesn't demand to be let out until at least 7 (sometimes even later at weekends).

This is all a great improvement on the days before shutting him in, when he was coming through progressively earlier every morning telling us to "wake up". 3.23 was the last straw!