With dd1 at 18 months , she was climbing out of her cot. We took the side off her cot at first so she got used to it then she went into a toddler bed. We put blankets beside the bed incase she fell out. It took a few weeks once she was in it for her not to open her door and come out.
With DD2 it's been easy, we set up her bed at 14 months in case ds came early, she just started sleeping in it straight away instead of the cot which was in her room too.
She sometimes sleeps on the floor but it's her choice, she bundles the doona under herself.
DD1 was 15mths when DD2 was born but we kept her in the cot while DD2 was in the bassinette and until we moved house.
We put down her matress at the new house and spent some w/ends here with her sleeping in her bed (mattress on the floor).
She loved it, she only got up out of her bed maybe twice (incl day sleeps) and when we moved she was more than happy to sleep in her big girl bed with her pretty sheets, a couple of months later we put her in an actual bed, she has never needed side rails as she was already aware of the mattress boundaries.
Each child is different, some kids love the space and being able to move around without banging on wooden edges etc, others find the never ending amount of space a little daunting.
try the mattress on the floor first if you can, maybe even with her cot mattress, then the single bed mattress then the bed IYKWIM... GL with it all
DS was 1 month away from 2 and honestly, all we did was take the cot down, put the bed up and away he went!
We did make it fun with buying him a racing car bed that he picked out and some thomas linen, so he was more than happy to sleep in his car bed. I really think this helped in such a smooth transition.
We had the new bed and the old cot in her room for a while, she only slept in the cot for about 2-3 weeks then one day decided she wanted to sleep in the bed and since then she has been in the bed. She was around 15 mths old, DS was born 2 mths later and by then she had transitioned night sleep as well, about 2 weeks after the day sleeps. This worked for us but now that I am going to do the same thing for DS I am thinking that a straight swap is going to suit him better so in the next month or so we will get her a new bed and he will get her old one and the cot will go (*sob**) Good luck - it is tricky working it all out but you have loads of time on hand to get her settled! Maybe get her to choose some nice new covers or something as well.
DD was around 18 months old. We did it simply because she refused to sleep in her cot. At first she slept on a mattress on the floor because I didnt want to buy a bed if she wouldn't sleep on it. After a few weeks we got the bed. She didnt want to sleep in the bed just the mattress but now sleeps in her bed.
We have yet to master her going to sleep without one of us in there though Cant win them all I guess
DS1 was 25 months old when DS2 was born. I thought alot about whether to move him into a bed on not before the bub arrived and like you if i was going to do it i wanted it done a good few months prior to the birth. In the end i decided to keep DS in a cot he was happy and just incase i had two awake at night i didn't want him to be able to come and go as he pleased. Luckily i was able to borrow a cot and i understand that this isn't an option for everyone.
A few months or so after DS2 had arrived we began to leave the cot side down so DS was able to climb in and out. Even in the beginning he would call out to us to come when he woke and we even had to show him how to climb out when he woke up. We never had any issues with him prolonging bedtime by getting out of bed all the time. By about 30 months i think he was finally in a bed and there was no transition, one day he was in a cot the next he was in a bed. DS has always been so easy and things never phased him, gradual transitions were never necessary for him.
DS2 is 18 months old and i'm starting to think he could be completely different, i just moved him into DS1's bedroom (still in a cot) as we are expecting again and it took a few days for him to get used to it even with his brother in the room. I was thinking to myself that i maybe should have made it more gradual for him and not assumed he'd be just like DS1. We're ok now and when the time comes we'll probably do simiarl to what we did with DS1 to get him into a bed but who knows how it will all go!?!?!
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