Toddler + 1 to be room sharing

SSCmomma

Dd is 18 months and sleeps beautifully in her crib in her room.  We are expecting another child in Feb, she will be 2 yrs.  In the beginning baby will be in our room but will then be moving into the room with dd.  Should we try to transition dd to a toddler bed before baby gets here, after baby gets here but before they share a room or try to keep dd in her crib until ummm high school?

whataboutscience

Personally I would do it before baby so she doesn't think baby is taking her stuff away (assuming baby will get the old crib eventually). Then you don't worry about her getting up and disturbing baby hopefully either since they'll be together. Ours will be 22 months apart and as soon as we found out we were expecting number two started talking up being a big girl. She watched us assemble her "big girl bed" and helped pick new bedding out. I also got her a pillow pet to coordinate with her bedding. As soon as the bed was ready, she was begging to sleep in it. We moved her at 19 months and she has only once gotten out of it in the middle of the night. She had a good record of sleeping well through the night and I was very clear that if she wanted this bed she had to lay down and stay in it. It was a good 2 months before she made her one attempt at exploring in the middle of the night. Good luck.

SSCmomma

We can convert her crib to a toddler bed abd get baby a new crib or we'll get dd a new bed of her own and put baby in crib.  Fortunately, we didn't know what we were having with dd so her furniture is really neutral.  I guess we'll just look around and see what's better cost wise.
Good to hear you did well with the transition.  I think I'm nervous dd will suddenly stop STTN and I'll have 2 screaming babies all night.  She hasnt been trying to climb out or anything yet so I wasnt pushing to transition but it makes good sense to do it before baby arrives so she doesnt equate baby with losing "her" spot.  Thanks!

whataboutscience

I also think better to get her used to it before hand for your same concern of having two up in the middle of the night since she will have to transition some time, and there's no way to know how it will go. We purposely did it several months before baby so that we had time for her to get used to it and it hopefully wouldn't be an issue when LO arrived.