Should i buy another cot for the new baby or a bed for 18 month old DS?
I'm at a loss as to what to do RE: sleeping arrangements with 2 under 2.
My options seem to be to buy DS a single big boy bed (he will be 21 months when bub is born) and hope it doesnt take too long for him to get used to it. I would have to start him in there around 19-20 months so he wasnt constantly getting out of bed while i have a nb to care for too.
OR
I can buy another cot for this little one and then DS can have his cot for as long as he likes then it turns into a toddler bed which he can use when he is ready.
Its seems like an easy decision but $$$ is tight and i'm just not 100% sure what to do but need to make a descision as the cot i want is currently on sale and it might take up to 12 weeks for order and delivery and thats about when i'm due.
I might also add that i plan to have bub in our room over night in a bassinett anyway and the cot will probably only be used for day sleeps so the baby can sleep without a noisy toddler in its face. In saying that too, i could always use the port-a-cot for those day sleeps and keep DS in his cot for a few months longer but then i would have the issue of transition to big bed while having a nb in the house.
A downside to keeping DS in his toddler bed that i could see would be that i couldnt lay in there with him if he was sick or upset etc..............
I also dont want to spend unnecessary $$$ on another cot if i dont need to and am only going to buy ds a big bed in 2 years anyway?
Confused yet lol??
WHat did or would you do or tips or suggestions, anything to actually get me to make my mind up and sleep peacefully!
If it helps the decision - Aldi has $200 cots next week? otherwise I have no sage advice - except I like the fact DS can't get out of bed and hope he will stay in his cot for a while yet!
DS2 is in bassinet in our room and fastly growing out of it!!!! 2 weeks ago we bit the bullet and ordered a king single for DS1 as figured toddler bed was waste of money given out cot does go to a toddler bed so DS2 will be in it a lot longer.
Bed will arrive in next 2 - 6 weeks and then will dismantle cot to move to other room for DS2.
DS1 I know will be a nightmare about getting in and out of bed a zillion times but figured this was better and cheaper in long run. As we have bought a bed that will do him till he is a teenager.
Should i buy another cot for the new baby or a bed for 18 month old DS?
The big singles can be pretty big, might be overwhelming for him to transition from a cot to a big bed rather than a toddler bed which is low to the ground then to a big bed? We got a second cot for dd2 with the same age gap, we then got a toddler bed about 6 months later on sale. We have now got her a big bed as were short a mattress and she was close to outgrowing her toddler bed.
Hi, DD1 was 19.5 months old when dd2 was born. We had dd2 in a bassinett in our room for all sleeps untill she looked like she was getting too big. Dh found an old cot going to hard rubbish (i know) and he cut it down to make a toddler bed, which dd1 slept in from 2 years til 2years 9 months when we got a single bed for her.
We are in the same situation again. DD2 is still in the cot and when dd3 comes along in october DD2 will be 22 months ish. I got a 2nd hand cradle off ebay... its longer than our bassinett.... so dd3 can stay in it for as long as possible while we transition dd2 out of the cot into the toddler bed.
We had a few issues with transition with dd1 into the toddler bed. We just started with her day sleeps then onto her nights... she would most of the time get out but consistancy is the key. Yes it is hard work with the nb in the house but we also didnt want to be getting another cot when we knew this would have to happen sooner or later.
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 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.
Should i buy another cot for the new baby or a bed for 18 month old DS?
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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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