Moving to a big girl bed- signs to look for....

What are the signs or things to note if bubs (she's still my baby! :) ) are ready for a big bed??

Izzy is still in her cot right now, bub will be in a cradle or hammock for 3 mths or so, then move into the cot. I know it is still 5 mths away or so, but we will be moving Izzy out into a new room shortly as well and just wondering if there are things to look for to see if they are going to be ok in a big bed?

We will be cutting an old single bed down so it is low to the ground and buying safety rails. She tends to still move around a bit at night, so that worries me a bit, or do they just stop doing that once in a bed???? She also sleeps in a sleeping bag and has since 8 weeks, so I would like her to still be in one in a bed - is that ok??

Thanks for any advice!!!

We moved DD into a bed when she was 16 months old as she started to have tanties in the cot, try and climb out, wanna sleep on her fold out lounge or our bed so we thought we would give it a try and im so happy we did.

She loves it, went to sleep in it straight away..she actually climbs into bed herself now when i say its bedtime..I carry her upstairs and she does the rest:( She goes to bed at 8 and will come into our room bout 6.30-7.30 to have cuddles with DH beofre he goes to work.

She even often puts herself to bed for nap time..just goes up the stairs and climbs in.

Ohhhhh Zee that is sooo cute! Izzy will walk to her room when we tell her it's time for a nap or bedtime so it will be interesting how she goes!
I guess I'm worried about her spinning around in the night, falling off or getting tangled in covers - although, she has blankets and sleeping bag now as well! :) Thanks for the post!

Yeah DD moves heaps in the night aswell but she hasnt fallen out yet.. maybe you could put another mattress on the ground (the cot one till your ready for bubs to use it) so if she manages to fall out she would land on that??

Thanks hun - and I just noticed your ticker!!!!!! Congrats and fingers crossed he doesn't make you wait too long! :)

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.

We *tried* to move Chelsea at around 15 months so Jasmine could have the cot. It back fired. She was happy to jump on it, lay down etc...but the minute the light was off and we walked out..hell broke loose. She would scream and cry. Go back in and she would be trying to climb into the cot.

Now at 20 months she still isnt ready to give up her cot.....waste of $1200 in a gorgeous bed when she hates the thing.

Hi Tan, Izzy and Iggy are about the same age and we have started taking the cot side off during the day so he can try out no sides for a short sleep. We tried it overnight but got a few hours in and he had rolled off the cot (onto pillows) and then under the bed! And we hadn't even woken up! But the short sleeps seem to be no worries and he loves being able to get up from a nap and waddle out to see us. :)

My DS was 19 months Tanstar - he was a big boy and kept getting caught up in the cot rails - we think - his sleep started to be interrupted.

DD was about 16 mnths - even though she is little, she is a wriggler, and wanted to be in a big bed like her brother :rolleyes:

I bought a new cot mattress for DD, so when DS went into his bed, we just put pulled that out from under the bed in case he fell.

They do fall occasionally - but sometimes don't even seem to wake! How much of a bad mother did that make me feel waking to chekc on him and seeing him asleep on the mattress on the florr!!!!

My kids both had sleeping bags - wasn't a problem, they quickly learn the caterpillar shuffle by now anyway??

Only advice would be that don't do it just before bubs comes, don't do it if you don't have a month inbetween the cot and bed with bubs needing the cot - allow time so Izzy doesn't think she is getting kicked out KWIM??

Thanks again everyone for the replies.... I feel a bit better now that it should work out ok. Sami I think what we will do is when bub is around 2 mths old, Izzy will be around 19 mths and we will try it then and keep the cot and her bed in the same room and transition her. That way we will have a month of that before we move the cot back into the nursery and move bubby into it.

Tan we were wondering the same thing here, but Aricyn likes jumping up and down on beds too much for us to even contemplate changing him into a bed. He still wakes up at night - mainly because he gets cold cos he shuffles around the cot so much, but we aren't even thinking about getting him out of the cot any time soon.

We have hired a hammock for the new bub (and have a bassinette as well) and if worst comes to worst, we have our portacot. We definitely aren't going to try to move Aricyn before he has indicated to us that he wants to move. Hopefully that will lead to him wanting to sleep in the bed, instead of jumping on it!!

(And we haven't even brought a bed yet.. lol)

just wanted to add that you can get junior beds these days which are really low to the ground, use a cot matress and have rails attached. they are pretty cheap too.

my DD never slept in a cot, she was in our bed, on a matress on the floor, only used the cot when both sides were off and bed rails on. so it was easy for us when we put her in a normal bed. she is in a single bed now and ok with it. she can get in and out of it fine being the size it is.