Well it seems I'm a bit different to most of the PPs - we bought a single bed and transitioned DD from her cot straight into that when she was 14mths old.
Yep, young, but we didn't want to buy a toddler bed for reasons mentioned above and we wanted to get DD into her new room and new bed well before new baby arrives so that DD doesn't see that the baby has "stolen" her cot.
Our transition went really well - before we even put her in there for sleeps we played in the room a lot so she could get used to it, then we tried a few day sleeps and then we went nights as well. She's been in a sleeping bag in the cot, so we have continued to use that, which she sees as a sleep cue - "in your bag, time for sleeping", and even though she can get up and down from the bed during the day when she's playing, we always lifted her into and out of bed when its sleep time. This was to try and discourage her from getting out of the bed... which worked for about two months and now she is starting to get out
It does seem she only gets out though when she has woken up, or when we try and put her down and she's not ready for sleeping. Most sleep times she is pretty good with into bed, time for sleeping.
All in all I think she has adjusted remarkably well and we have the cot ready now for new bubs. She does sometimes try to climb into the cot, but I'm trying to say "baby goes in there" so she doesn't get a shock when baby comes home and goes into the cot! Could be interesting!!!!
Good luck - it is a tough decision but as one of the PPs said, consistency is the key.
we transitioned DD to a big girl bed with relative ease. first we transformed her cot to the toddler bed arrangement and then when we found out we were expecting went to Ikea and got a toddler bed that is extendable to a full size single. we both fit on there easily as i have been sleeping beside her the last 2 nights as she has been unwell and needing extra cuddles...and we fit comfy even with my 30 week pregnant belly! (we also just went straight to the single size, as opposed to toddler size first as we wanted to buy a better quality, long term mattress for her, rather than the toddler ones that have bits and bobs etc).
if i were in your position i would do a transition to a big boy bed. each kid though is going to react differently but in our case DD loved it (she was roughly 16ish months when we converted her cot ITH).
goodluck with it all! i am sure you will find a happy arrangement for your babies xx
I am not really qualified to say as I dont have 2 under 2 but I would buy a toddler bed.
Do you have a porta cot? You can always revert back to that for a while if you have problems with the toddler bed? Will bub be going in a bassinette or co-sleeping with you?
It just seems a lot of money for a second cot taht might not be used for very long.
DD was 18 months when DD2 was born. DD transitioned into a regular singlebed with a safety rail with no problems. I bought a new bed spread with cool dragonflies on it, and put it in another room. DD helped me put some toys in there and we played a bit and i was talking a lot about the big girl's bed and about how when she was bigger she could sleep in there. After a few days she asked to sleep in the big girls bed. I told her she was only allowed if she stayed in bed! She did, i don't think she ever got out for about 6 months, she'd wake and call out to me! We had DD2 in a bassinet for a couple of months so if she wanted/needed to go back into the cot she could, but she never did.
We are having the same dilema. DS has only just started sleeping better at night and i dont really want to move him out of his bed and undo all the work we have done. Plus he LOVES his cot and doesn't sleep well anywhere else. I think at this stage we are going to get the new bub a cradle as they are slightly bigger than a basinette and use that till ds is ready to go to a bed. We figure if we can get 6ish months in the cradle ds will be nearly 2.5 and will prob understand the transition a bit better. Plus DS is such a monkey im afraid that we will have a horrible time getting him to stay in the bed but by that age we might be able to reason with him a bit more.
It's a tricky one and we've been there also and about to be there again.
For us we were lucky enough to be able to borrow a cot with the first new arrival and i think we can again this time around. It worked really well for us, when the transition was made to a bed DS1 had absolutely no issues and would still wait in bed for us to come and get him (only for a short time )
with the first 3 they all went into a normal single bed by 12 months..seeign we co slept most of the time before hand I saw no difference from going into a single to my bed KWIM
With tank we bought a toddler bed because of the distance from the top of the bed and the floor. That jolt of getting down was no good for his cerebal palsey KWIM. We bought it hte same colour as his cot (not that he slept in there much) and the transition was a bit hit and miss as he slept with us most of the time....thankfully he is our last cause i dont know how I could do it with a baby
If your going to d it I would consider doing it before bub arrives hon. You dont want him to be jealous of the baby taking his cot KWIM
I had 15 mths between DS1 and DS2, and decided to put DS1 in a bed so the new baby could have the cot but this did not work for us as he loved the bed for the fact he could get out of it 100x a night. In the end we borrowed a cot for the new baby and had both cots in the same room until DS1 was over 2. However I know a lot of kids are happy in a bed at a younger age so it really depends on your oldest child and how they cope.
Do you have anyone who could lend you a cot as a temporary measure? I bought a new mattress following SIDS guidelines (although not sure if they are still current) but it was much cheaper than buying an entire cot.
We had the same issues wih our little ones because of the age gap.
We kept our toddler in her cot, and the baby slept in the bassinet for 5ish months or something. Then by then we got a little toddler bed for our toddler and moved bub into the cot.
I think some toddlers are ready for beds earlier than others, but we felt that our dd wasn't ready when the baby came along so we left it a bit longer.
If money is an issue too, I;d just use the bassinet and portacot for bubby and buy a bed later for Byron.
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She did, i don't think she ever got out for about 6 months, she'd wake and call out to me! We had DD2 in a bassinet for a couple of months so if she wanted/needed to go back into the cot she could, but she never did.
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