We moved DS into a big boy's bed at about 18 months. Not because he was showing any particular signs but we wondered if he might sleep better in a bed. He had never slept through the night ever. We had noted that if he came into bed with us he did love having his head on a pillow so as a transitional thing we introduced a pillow into his cot to see if that would help his sleep...sort of, but didn't stop him waking. He also loved to climb up on our bed at random times during the day and get under the covers just for fun.

We thought that if it all turned to hell we'd just put him back in a cot.

Well - happy to report that DS now sleeps through (he is now 22 months)! He loves his bed. We had no problems at all - first night he still woke up, second night went all the way through and that has been pretty much the pattern ever since. We got him a Cars doona cover and sheets with little cars and trucks and aeroplanes and put his teddies on the bed and he thought it was just the best thing.

He is still in a sleeping bag (has been since he was 6 weeks old). We did try him without it but after one night he wanted it back. We were getting him ready for bed and he started pointing anxiously at the wardrobe (where we keep the sleeping bags) and we realised what he was asking for. Big grin from DS confirming we were right. Given that it's winter we don't mind, and he doesn't seem to have twigged that it is possible to climb out of the bed - whether or not that's because of the bag, I don't know. So at the moment his doona is just for show, we just put the sheet over the top of the bag because he likes to be tucked in.

I've found that the pillow tends to stop him moving around so much but he does have a bed rail on both sides of the bed. He did once manage to get his head wedged betweeen the bed and rail but that was our fault, we hadn't tucked the bedrail in properly after we put him to bed that night.

As far as we are concerned, it's the best thing we ever did and certainly won't um and ah about putting number 2 in a bed.