Baby #2 on the way....when to transition #1 to a bed???

BabyNewbury2012

So our daughter will be 3 in April. She loves her crib, we put her to bed 8pm and she usually sleeps until 7-7:30am. Baby #2 is due to arrive in July.

I had no intentions of switching her from her crib until she started to climb out which she has never attempted. But a friend of mine suggested that switching her now would probably be better then having to do it later with another little one.

I think if we put her in a bed we will have trouble getting her to go to bed and stay there. Plus when the baby comes and wakes I wonder will she wake and come out in the room.

Any thoughts or experience with this would be great.

 

Thank you.

BabyNewbury2012

Nicb13 said:

I would make the switch months before the new baby comes.

You don't know if she will get out of the bed until you just go for it. I worried about the same thing with DS and in the year he's been in a twin bed, he's never gotten out in the night. And if he did, he got right back in and I had no idea.

You could either close her door at night or put a baby gate in the doorway to keep her from leaving her room. We bought DS Super Mario bedding (his favorite) and some posters for his room and kept prepping him for his new "big boy bed". That made him so excited and I believe is partly why the transition was so easy. He thinks his room and bed are fun now.

Was your son trying to climb out or did you just want to make the transition before your #2 came? Did you have to lay with him with once you put him in a big boy bed?

My husband is afraid that she will suddenly start to climb out once the baby arrives which will leave us to transition her  while having a newborn at home.

Anne Mommy

I didn't want to buy a new crib for #2 so we transitioned #1 into a twin bed. I got a mates bed that is on;y 15 inches off the floor with the mattress. DS1's room is right next to our room and we put the baby monitor in there. We'd go through our bedtime routine and close the door. For a few nights, he slept on the floor. He eventually figured out that the bed was more comfortable. FWIW, he never tried to climb out of the crib and only tried to climb in to be with brother. 

I didn't want DS to think that the baby was "stealing" his bed. I wanted it to be a move for him because he got a big bed and was a bigger kid. We are trying the same thing with DS2 in prep for #3, but it's a little more difficult since DS1 and DS2 will be sharing a room. 

Bigboobsmcgee

BabyNewbury2012 said:

Nicb13 said:

I would make the switch months before the new baby comes.

You don't know if she will get out of the bed until you just go for it. I worried about the same thing with DS and in the year he's been in a twin bed, he's never gotten out in the night. And if he did, he got right back in and I had no idea.

You could either close her door at night or put a baby gate in the doorway to keep her from leaving her room. We bought DS Super Mario bedding (his favorite) and some posters for his room and kept prepping him for his new "big boy bed". That made him so excited and I believe is partly why the transition was so easy. He thinks his room and bed are fun now.

Was your son trying to climb out or did you just want to make the transition before your #2 came? Did you have to lay with him with once you put him in a big boy bed?

My husband is afraid that she will suddenly start to climb out once the baby arrives which will leave us to transition her  while having a newborn at home.

I'm not Nicb but we had a similar situation. My son wasn't trying to climb out but we had a baby coming and I didn't want to do the transition after the baby came.

We bought DS a twin bed and he immediately took to it. I always sit with him on the bed at night and read books, talk, whatever but I never had to lay with him. We used to close his door so he couldn't come out but now we leave it open and he still doesn't come out!

I would make the switch now and get her some things for her new bed that she will really like, to make it special.

g8trkim

We were in this exact same boat. DS loved his crib but DD was due when he was 2 1/2 so it just didn't make sense to have two cribs. We moved him to a twin bed (with a rail) around 2 years 4 months. It was kind of a nightmare. He would scream and ask for his crib back... seriously. We stuck it out and by the time DD came he was fine. It might be easy, it might be hard. But it's better to deal with it before you have a newborn in the mix.