When to move to toddler bed?

mattandlora

With #2 on the way, we are starting to wonder when to move #1 to a toddler bed. He's 15 months now and will be 22 months when #2 is born. We don't want to make any abrupt changes with him when the new one is born. So, do we switch him over a couple months earlier? Or let him stay in the crib until we move #2 out of our room? Or do we leave "his" crib untouched for awhile, with him in his toddler bed and #2 in our room?

I know there's not a right answer. I'm looking for advice from those who went through this before, what worked, and what didn't work. Thanks!

bleusimp

Our #1 will only be 16 months when #2 arrives. I saw lots of things in general that say when your child starts crawling out if his crib, switch them. Seems like a super scary thought to me. We are setting up a toddler bed in the room with #1's crib. We figure we will keep #2 in our room for the first couple of months since I breastfeed anyway and move #1 to the toddler bed when we move #2 to the room.

NicoleWI

Every kid is different. Here's what we did. With DS, I intended to move DD1 to her own room before he was born b/c was trying to minimize upheaval for her. Things got too busy and it didn't happen but it worked out totally fine. I think shortly after he was born we had her sleep for a couple weeks on a toddler aerobed on the floor, and then moved her into her own "big girl" room with a regular bed with rails a few months later. He was in our room for the first 6 months or so anyway, so there was still time for her to get used to her own room before he moved into her old digs.

Now we have DD2 who is still sleeping in our room due to a move and massive construction project for the last year. We were finally ready to move her into the crib, and figured new baby (due in Jan) would be in our room at least until fall 2015 (our master is far from the kids' rooms and I don't mind having a baby in our room). But, DD2 has just started freaking out about any bed or crib and wants to sleep on the FLOOR. So, in light of that, we are now thinking of moving her right to a toddler bed. She's 21 months this week.

I would say to wait as long as you can if you don't NEED to move the child. It's still easier when they are contained in a crib.

anonymousmotley

I haven't had to deal with this particular issue.  However, if I was in your shoes I would say wait until the baby is a few months old.  But that is me and my reason is:  I let my babies sleep in my room for 6 months, or until I feel ready for them to sleep alone.  I also let my kids sleep in their crib as long as possible.  And if I were in your situation, I wouldn't want to deal with an unruly bedtimer (due to new found freedom) while I'm trying to take care of a newborn.  But, of course, this is just how I would handle it and it's not right for everyone. 

Whatever you decide will be right for you!!  Good luck!!

harmonicbabe26

I think it all depends on the personality of the older kid. My DD will be almost 3 when this baby is born and unless by some chance she is fully potty trained for night time, she will not be moving to another bed.
She's completely crazy and if I let her have the freedom to get out of bed any time she wants, she will never sleep! Ever! By some weird lucky fluke she has not discovered how to climb out of her crib so that's not a concern right now.
She will stay contained in there till I absolutely have to let her out.

We just got another inexpensive crib used for baby #2 (not that the first crib was $$ or anything).

If you think your kid will continue to sleep fine in an open bed, I don't think there is a bad time. My friend moved her DD to a queen size bed at 15m I think to make room for new brother and the little girl did fine.

2ndGeneration

 If dd is not getting out of the crib, I'd let her stay in it till right before you move baby into the crib. Like a week or two. If she starts getting out before, then I'd transition her at that point.

BabyBliss76

My lo is 22 months right now. She is in no way ready to be out of her crib. I would worry for her safety if I was to move her now. My two older girls I think were around 3 when I took them out of the crib. I do not remember having any problems but that has been awhile. Lol! Good luck!

topaz7777

I moved DD to a toddler bed at 20 months... She is 27 months now, and just fell out of the bed for the 4th time last night.  Poor kid.  Many tears.  I thought we were past that, but now I think I'll put a pillow on the floor next to the bed again.

MsMacual

I agree that it depends on the child and your set up.  Our son will turn 3 right after his brother is born and he still is in the crib.  He hasn't tried to climb out so there isn't a reason to remove the side and go to the toddler bed or another bed.  With that being said, he has bed shared with us most of the time so he doesn't sleep in his crib a ton (maybe one or two nights per week and not always the whole night).  We'll have #2 in our room until he outgrows our bassinet.  Our older son was pretty close to 6 mo before that happened and then we started bed sharing.  I don't plan to do all of the same things this time around, but I do figure that we have a few months to play with and we'll figure out a plan once we have a better sense of #2's sleep habits.  Right now we are more focused on potty training #1 than getting him to sleep in a big boy bed!

jcdorsey74

We moved DS to a twin bed with a rail at 18 months. We should have done it much sooner. He began sleeping through the night from that moment on. About a month ago, (his 2 year birthday) we ditched the rail. No issues at all.