Sleeping in a bed

[MiMo]

Hi
We are planning a move back to Oz and it means Hannah will be in a portacot for a while so we have been talking about trying her in a bed when we get there - she will be 17months old.
so my questions are:
- is this too young to sleep in a bed
- how on earth do you get them to stay there!

I have seen the bed guards and we would definitely get those.
thanks

[mooshie]

hi mimo

my first dd was around 18mths when we put her in a bed and ah well she didn't stay in there lol - was up and down all night she actually thought it was a bit of a game ](*,) . being 7mths preg and needing my sleep in desperation we put a safety gate at her doorway and it worked a treat, quite often she would get up come to the gate and look around then climb back into the bed.

good luck am sure there will be heaps of suggestions for you

[Phteven]

Yasin has a safety gate on his door. When he wakes up he comes and stands at his gate and yells for room service.

[Ambah]

Unless there is a reason she needs to be sleeping in a big bed (ie. a new sibling will need the cot; or she is able to escape from her cot; or other safety reasons) I can't really see what could be beneficial about putting such a young toddler in a big bed.
I would think that it would just be much easier (on the parents especially!) to keep her in her cot.
Its up to you of course, but its likely to be more disruptive as she gets used to it, plus she will always be in and out of bed, and nothing you can do about it!
But then again, I havent experienced this myself ... so maybe its not as hard as I think it would be, LOL
Aidyn is very nearly 2, and still in his cot... and I plan on keeping him in there for a minimum of another 6 months.

[christy]

As Ambah says unless they are climbing out or for some other reason I would avoid it LOL

Matilda moved into the big girl bed at 16 months because she would climb in & out of the cot & it got quite dangerous. For the first 3 weeks it took us 2 hours every night to get her to stay in bed. She climbed over gates as well. So we had to put a lock on her door and lock her in for a few nights (which made me feel awful).

Personally I think it was way too early mentally for her to understand, and way too hard for us to deal with at the time. Now at 22 months its heaps better and she understands more and loves her bed. But its taken us ages.

[MiMo]

Thanks for the replies!!!! I could so see my monster not going to sleep and trying to escape all the time. We have decided to ship her cot over before the rest of our furniture so she will only be in the portacot for a a month max. LOL at your stories though!!!

[Artechim]

My brother went into a bed just before his first birthday. He could climb out of the cot and after he fell out head first, Mum made the move. He had one of the bar things that tuck under the mattess to stop them falling out. I think she shut his door and left hers open, if he needed anything she heard him

[Soph]

Mimo - Not sure if this will help at all but we were just on hols for 2 weeks and I didn't want Lucie to sleep in a portacot the entire time because it is actually quite hard and uncomfortable, but I picked up a port-a-cot mattress from a baby shop for $45 (if your port-a-cot is standard size) and it was a lot better.

[MiMo]

we have found that for an xtra $120 we can ship Hannah's cot plus our bikes over so now that is the plan.

Thanks for the replies htough - we were wondering when would be a good time to switch her into a bed. Now I know its NOT yet!!!

[christy]

LOL.... I think when they start showing they are ready. With us it was the safety factor and climbing out of the cot, I have friends whose little ones felt so safe & secure in their cots that they stayed in until they were 2 1/2! I was prepared for that time frame myself, but it happened a year early for us LOL