Two Under 2

Giving LO1 crib to LO2

Hey there. I'm well on my way to having 2u2 (woo!) and I have a transition Q. DS will be 22 months when this baby is born and I'd really like to use his crib for the new baby and get him in a real bed. Has anyone had experience doing this? Is this a slap in the face to my sweet DS? Maybe it's just Mommy Guilt. How far in advance did you transition LO1 out of their crib before #2 started using it if you've done it?

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Re: Giving LO1 crib to LO2

  • Honestly, your DS will be having a lot of transition issues.  I personally would not have the change of his bed to the new baby be one of them.  I personally would rather spend the money to buy a new crib.  You can get one of those convertible cribs to save some money for the future toddler bed. 
  • DS will be 22 months when this LO is born, and my plan is that we will keep DS in his crib until the new baby is about 3 months old, (around Christmas), then we will transition him to a new "big boy" room, with a new bed and all new stuff that he can choose, the baby will not be moving into the crib until he is about 7 months, so DS has plenty of time to get used to his room, and I think with a 4 month change over that DS will not feel that he was kicked out of his crib.

    I personally feel that getting another crib when DS is old enough not to need one is a waste of money, in fact if we weren't doing reno work for another month and a half I would probably be transitioning DS to his room now, we are only waiting until after the baby as the reno work will be finished only a month before the baby is due, and I think that's a little close to be changing things for DS1.

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  • imagewedsept:
    Honestly, your DS will be having a lot of transition issues.nbsp; I personally would not have the change of his bed to the new baby be one of them.nbsp; I personally would rather spend the money to buy a new crib.nbsp; You can get one of those convertible cribs to save some money for the future toddler bed.nbsp;


    This. Both of my boys beds came with toddler rails and convert into full sized beds. DS2s was from Walmart.com and very affordable and nice.
    TTC January 2010
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  • imagewedsept:
    Honestly, your DS will be having a lot of transition issues.  I personally would not have the change of his bed to the new baby be one of them.  I personally would rather spend the money to buy a new crib.  You can get one of those convertible cribs to save some money for the future toddler bed. 

    This.

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  • Our DS's are 22 months apart.. DS1 has showed no signs of being ready for a big boy bed and that is totally OK with me! I'm dreading that transition actually!

    We got DS2's crib at Ikea.. Super cheap and a nice crib!

    BFP 5/21/10, Missed m/c 7/5/10 at 11w3d (baby measured 7wks), D&C 7/7/10

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  • I am in a very similar situation.  LO2 is due when LO1 will be 21 months old.  I transitioned LO1 into the toddler bed a month ago (19 months then) and he is doing amazing!  The boys are sharing the room, so I assembled the toddler bed as soon as possible to he got used to seeing it.  I then put him in it a few times to play in when we were together in his room so he knew it was there. 

    The big step was when I put him down for a nap in the toddler bed.  He was SO TIRED that day that he just passed out.  I did it a few times for naps then gave it a whirl in the evenings.  He has not slept in his crib since.

     My point is that if you need to use the crib for the new baby, you can make it happen.  I would definitely start a few months before the baby is born though.  My LO knows that the toddler bed is HIS bed and the crib is for babies.  We talk about it pretty regularly.  I hope that will help when my LO2 comes in a month! 

  • mkarnsmkarns member
    imageNNGnome:

    DS will be 22 months when this LO is born, and my plan is that we will keep DS in his crib until the new baby is about 3 months old, (around Christmas), then we will transition him to a new "big boy" room, with a new bed and all new stuff that he can choose, the baby will not be moving into the crib until he is about 7 months, so DS has plenty of time to get used to his room, and I think with a 4 month change over that DS will not feel that he was kicked out of his crib.

    I personally feel that getting another crib when DS is old enough not to need one is a waste of money, in fact if we weren't doing reno work for another month and a half I would probably be transitioning DS to his room now, we are only waiting until after the baby as the reno work will be finished only a month before the baby is due, and I think that's a little close to be changing things for DS1.

    I thought about waiting it out the first 3 months too because I didn't put DS into a crib until at least 3 months. I actually do have the crib to bed transition crib but it was $400 and I don't think it's necessary to buy another crib when he could be in a bed. I just worry about him claiming the crib as his sleeping space. Maybe I'll try a transition pre-baby to see how he does and if he isn't ok with it ill consider a second crib. If he is, I'll put the crib in another room. Maybe it will be out of sight- out of mind.

    MAybe this is me having an outlet to express my fear! Gah! 

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  • mkarnsmkarns member
    imagehocus:

    Take the new baby off the table. Is your child ready for a bed or not? If yes then the transition will be fine. If not figure out something else. Use a PNP for the baby for a while. Or get a second crib from ikea or walmart.

    FWIW my older child was in a crib until well over 3 and I have no regrets. She slept great and I liked having her contained. She sleeps pretty well in her bed too. Overall the transition was very smooth. I'll probably transition my other child earlier because he will attempt to climb out of the crib and that never happened with my older child.

    i missed this response and agree completely with your theory. 

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    And Coralee, his baby sister...On the way!

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  • 21 months apart and we have 2 cribs that convert into full size beds. No regrets and happily watching them both sleep, on the monitor, in their cribs tonight.
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  • I didnt want to buy a 2nd crib and it worked out fine.  DD was 18months when DS was born.  Her new "big girl room" was all ready with her new twin bed, but we just spent time playing in there.  About 2 months after DS was born, she was 20months and we made the transition to the new room new bed.  We did have to lay in bed with her to help her go to sleep for the first few weeks, but it wasnt a big deal.  DS was in our room in the rock-n-play for about 5months so we had plenty of time to get her out of the crib.  It was harder transitioning naps to the new bed b/c I didn't have time to lay in bed with her at naptime, so she napped in the crib for awhile after she started sleeping in the bed at night.
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  • imagehocus:

    Take the new baby off the table. Is your child ready for a bed or not? If yes then the transition will be fine. If not figure out something else. Use a PNP for the baby for a while. Or get a second crib from ikea or walmart.

    This exactly. As an experiment by dh while we were rearranging furniture one day, we converted dd's crib to a toddler bed when she was 13 months old. He was curious, I was extremely skeptical. Turns out she loved it, and took to an open bed like a champ. She'll be 18 months when little sister gets here, and we've already moved her to a big girl bed so #2 can have the crib. We've had no problems, because she's not really possessive of her bed, she's always slept well no matter where she was. If she weren't this surprisingly ready, though, I would have just bought another crib.  

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  • If I were you, I'd probably start the transition around 20 months. We moved my son to a twin bed at that age and it worked well. Have lo in your room the first three months and that gives lo 5 months to adjust. If you try to transition and its a huge fail certainly get a second crib, but I think it's silly to waste money. You never know if your kid is truly ready until you actually try it. Its not like potty training where you can gauge your kids readiness through a list of developmental milestones. 

    i wouldn't blow money on the twin bed conversion kit. We got bunk beds for the kids. Even if that's never going to be an option it's not like a twin bed frame is incredibly expensive. 

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  • Mine are 19 months apart and we did not buy a second crib. We kept DD1 in the crib until she was 23 months and DD2 in our room in the PNP. At 23 months DD1 chose to move to a toddler bed in her new bedroom and it was a really easy transition. We waited a month, then moved DD2 to the crib in the nursery (she was around 6 months). Had DD1 not been ready for the toddler bed, we would have kept her in the crib and DD2 in the PNP another month and tried again.
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  • My daughter is 22 months and I am due for #2 next week.  We decided not to buy a second crib and just transition our daughter to a new bed.  To avoid the association between changing beds and her baby brother coming, we made the switch about 2 months ago.  We bought her a daybed, so the bed is already surrounded by "walls" on 3 sides, and put a side rail along the front.  So the bed still feels closed in like a crib.  We made the transition very slowly, moved the bed in her room and left all other furniture in its place.  After a couple nights, she started sleeping in the new bed.  Then a few days later, we moved her old bedroom set out and moved in the remainder of her new furniture.  She got to keep her own room and has never had an issue with the new bed.  

    During her transition we emptied and painted the new nursery, so when we were ready to move the crib set out of her room, the nursery was all set. Our second baby will sleep in a bassinet in our room for the first couple months anyway, but I wanted to make sure that my daughter's room transition never felt like it had anything to do with the new baby.  By now, the crib isn't "hers" anymore and she has been helping me set stuff up in the nursery for the new baby.  She knows that the crib, along with all the furniture that went along with it, will belong to the new baby and she has been fine with that concept.  Now, how she will behave when the baby actually arrives?  That remains to be seen!

  • DD1 has always been a great sleeper and I wasn't about to mess with that so we went with 2 cribs. Although the girls are in separate rooms for now, I'd like them to eventually share so we can have an office/guest room. We bought matching convertible cribs so whether they're currently using a crib, day bed, or twin, they'll match without having to buy any new furniture.
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  • I think it really depends on your child. We moved my DS to a toddler bed when he was 14mo old and it went totally fine. He's 22mo now, his brother was born at 16mo and I would do the same thing again. I have a big kid, who climbs and I can't imagine him sleeping in a crib still. He just started getting out of the bed on his own in the morning - until the point he stayed there and waited for us. 
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    I transitioned both girls at 16 months with no problems.  Neither showed signs of needing a twin bed.  We just did it because I didn't want to buy another crib.  Yes, our crib will convert to a toddler and a full bed but I don't think kids need a full size bed (and we don't have the space).  I put the twin bed in their rooms about a month or two before transitioning so they could get used to having a big bed and learn how to safely climb in and out of it.

    They are still babies even if they sleep in a twin bed.  A bed is a bed is a bed.  Just a place to sleep.  I was not forcing them to grow up faster by transitioning them before the age of 2.  I was simply giving them a different place to rest. 

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  • imagebethanyreese:
    imagewedsept:
    Honestly, your DS will be having a lot of transition issues.nbsp; I personally would not have the change of his bed to the new baby be one of them.nbsp; I personally would rather spend the money to buy a new crib.nbsp; You can get one of those convertible cribs to save some money for the future toddler bed.nbsp;
    This. Both of my boys beds came with toddler rails and convert into full sized beds. DS2s was from Walmart.com and very affordable and nice.

    this word for word. We got dd2 a Walmart crib that came with a cheap mattress( put that in dd1's crib). Honestly, I was not ready for her in a big girl bed. Both beds are convertible.  

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  • We started with DS in his own new crib in our room and DD still in her crib in her room.

    When it was time to transition DS out of our room,  we got a toddler bed for DD and put it into a 3rd room,  and put DS in DD's old room and old crib. 

    We have had zero jealousy issues.

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  • DD and baby #2 will be about 21 months apart and DD is an excellent sleeper, so I am not planning on changing things too much with the new baby. We would like to co-room with the new baby for the first few months using the RnP and/or PnP and transitioning DD to real bed closer to 2 at which point the baby will move into the crib.  
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  • I haven't read most of the other responses but this is totally doable.

    We knew we didn't want to have to buy another crib. So, pretty much the second we found out we were pregnant again, we started planning. We turned the spare bedroom into a big boy room for DS and started off letting him play in there during the day for a few months and getting him warmed up to the idea of it being a place where he'd be spending more time.

    After a few months, we moved his crib mattress in there one day, just put it on the floor. We told him he'd gotten so big that he didn't need the crib anymore and we'd moved him into this other room where he'd been having fun every day and he got to sleep in there now, too! Wasn't it fun? :) His night time sleeping adjusted right away but naps took a month or two to even out while he got used to having so much freedom (i.e., he spent a lot of naptimes playing for a while). This all took place about three months before the baby arrived. Eventually, we got DS a twin mattress (again, just put it on the floor while he gets used to it) and put the crib mattress back in the crib for the baby.

    By the time the baby got here, DS was 25 mos. old and had been in his new room for about three months. He had no issues at all with someone else using his old room.

    If you plan ahead of time, you can definitely pull it off. Btw, we avoided attaching ownership to the rooms and instead referred to them as the blue room and the white room. We also almost always talk about toys and other items as being the family's items but he gets to use them ("That's the family's book but you can use it."). That way, when we put some of his old toys back in the nursery for #2, he understood that they were the family's toys and that the baby would be using them now.

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