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!

Just been there had all those decisions!!

DS1 was 18 months 4 days when DS2 was born.

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.

Good luck

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.

HTH!

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 :o

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.

Hey Kristy:)

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.

All the best with the rest of your pregnancy!

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! :lol: 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 :D)

I'm hoping it's as smooth for DS2 :D

Good luck and hope it's a smooth transition.

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 didn't get a second cot... I just moved DS onto a mattress on the floor at about 16m and he is still there... We haven't got around to buying him a bed yet... (oops). We bought a good mattress, just need to find the right base for it... I did have DS2 in a bassinet for a while, but had moved DS1 to the bed before he come along, so he didn't feel too displaced...

Maybe the extendable bed from Ikea (mentioned earlier) might be a good idea. You can have it short (toddler size bed) to begin with so he is snuggly and feels safe, and then extend it when he needs a bigger bed (or you have to be in the bed with him ;) ) This way you don't have to get a toddler bed as well as a single bed later on... :think:

Thank you all. Ok well i have a made a descision yay!

I think i will just get a single bed for DS and try it and see what happens in the next month or so. Hopefully it will all go well and if it doesnt - no biggie - we can always try again later. Little one can just use the port-a-cot and the bassinette until the big boy loves his new bed :)

I even sealed the deal by buying some single bed manchester on sale today so i cant back out and get anther cot cause i cant afford it now :rofl:

Thank you all, its great to hear about your experiences.

Hey Kristy, I have no experience at an urgent transition but I was going to suggest a couple of things.
Sometimes a toddler bed just isn't viable for lots of reasons. DD is an amazon child and was almost too long for the cot at just over 12 months old. A Toddler bed uses the same mattress so for us that just wasn't a usable option.
I think the single bed is a great idea, and two things helped with my two (who went in at 16 and 11 months respectively), either just trial him on the mattress on the floor (with or without a bedrail - some kids need it for a sense of security, not just to prevent them falling out), or take the castors off the ensemble (if that's what you choose) so it isn't so high.
Good luck, but don't worry. He'll probably surprise you.

I think you've made a good decision...well thats what we did and it worked for us and DS1 was 20months old when DS2 arrived.

We bought DS1 a single childrens bed when he was 18months old- started with day sleeps then moved onto night sleeps about 3weeks later. We've not had too much trouble with DS1 getting out of his bed either and he took to sleeping in it pretty well. I think it helped that when we went looking for beds for him- we watched how he'd react when we went to the stores- we ended up with a train themed bed- because we looked at it a few times and each time DS1 would run up to it, climb on and lay down and pretend to sleep.

We also put side rails up, which kinda enclosed it (except for the bottom corner- so he could get out)- which i found had a little bit of a cot feel to it.

At least also with a single bed you'll still able to lay in there with him- though it might get a little tricky towards the end.

My back up plan was to use the port-a-cot too- got it all ready but didn't use it once. So hopefully everything works out for you's as it did us.