Toddler bed...

fishingwife

So I am trying to decide whether to move my son into a toddler bed, or just get another crib.  He never tries to climb out of his crib (at least not yet), and I just know putting him in a toddler bed will mean my LO roaming the house at all hours of the night....  Help!  What did you do or what are you going to do???

raceyrae

We are moving DD to a toddler bed at 17 mo.  We plan to put child-locks on the door so she doesn't roam around the house (although I'm sure in the beginning she'll explore her room).  Our thought is she's going to have to learn how to stay in her bed so we might as well try it when she's 17 mo. and see how it goes.  I'm not a fan of waiting till my children climb out of a crib to move them to a toddler bed -- to me that seems like I've already waited to long and it's become dangerous.

NewzieMom

I just moved DS#1 to a toddler bed after DS#2 was born.  

Heather&Scott

I moved my son when he was 18 months into a twin bed.  My youngest was 2 months old at the time.  He was fine.  It took about a week to transition him, but after that, he was back to sleeping through the night.  Although we did baby-proof the heck out of the room (tethering big furniture to the walls, locking drawers so that he couldn't open them, etc), we didn't have to worry about the door.  We just closed it shut at night -- for the longest time, he didn't know that he could get out of the bed, much less open doors!  LOL! 

springtime81

We moved DS to a twin bed last month.  We made sure his room was completely baby-proofed.  Since all our bedrooms are upstairs, we close the stairway gate when he goes to bed and close the other bedroom doors.  When we go up to bed we leave our bedroom door open a crack.  If he wakes up before us, he usually comes straight to our room and wakes us up.

We haven't had to worry about this yet, but we also turned his doorknob around so that he couldn't lock us out.  I guess we could also use it to lock him in if necessary, although he can't yet open doors.  But honestly he has not ever tried to wander around, he just goes to sleep the whole night.

HappyTXChick

My DS loves his crib and never tries to get out.  He goes to bed so easliy and sleeps great.  So I figure why rock the boat?!  We will move him to a toddler bed when he starts crawling out or he is 2.5ish and is starting to physically outgrow it.  Which ever comes first.

We bought another crib.  Actually, we didn't buy it, but got it from DH's sister who is done having kids.  There are tons on Craigs List too.

Sawyerplus1

Our plan so far (though it may change) is to keep DS in his crib when baby #2 arrives. He'll be 22 months when the baby is born and we're just not sure that he'll be ready for a toddler bed by then. So we'll have the baby in the pack'n'play (with bassinette) for the first few months, while we work on transitioning DS at some point.

agmaso

Our crib is convertible so we are letting DD keep it and are getting a new convertible for #2. We will convert the cribs whenever it's time without being rushed by a deadline.

I like the idea of having her?confined?still

Mr.&MrsS

We were going to put DS in a toddler bed too. But then when we thought about it, we wanted to still be able to control when he was in his bed and when he was out. So we kept him in his crib and bought a new crib for the new baby. They will be about 16.5 months apart and I would like to keep DS in his crib until at least 2, longer if possible. So getting a new crib seemed to make the most sense.

kfriscia

We had originally thought we would move DS to a toddler bed.  He will be about 20 months.  But he sleep great in it, never even tries to climb out and DS #2 will be sharing his room so we were a little afraid to have him wandering around the room with the baby in there so we are just going to get a 2nd crib.

emas

We're getting another crib to lessen the upheaval on my daughter... she's not ready to move out of her crib, yet.

chica1bonita

fishingwife:

So I am trying to decide whether to move my son into a toddler bed, or just get another crib.  He never tries to climb out of his crib (at least not yet), and I just know putting him in a toddler bed will mean my LO roaming the house at all hours of the night....  Help!  What did you do or what are you going to do???

We didn't wait for ds to try to climb out of the crib before moving him to a bed.  before dd was born we started the transition from crib to twin bed.  we put up a gate and baby proofed the room and that worked perfectly for a VERY active 16mth old. When dd was 6wks she took over his crib so there was no need to purchase a second crib. 

 

Barbie&Kevin

agmaso:

Our crib is convertible so we are letting DD keep it and are getting a new convertible for #2. We will convert the cribs whenever it's time without being rushed by a deadline.

I like the idea of having her confined still

 

DITTO

jlw2505

I moved my older DD into a twin bed with a bed rail (had the mattress right on the floor until about 6 months later) at 18 months, 3 months before my younger DD was born.  She never got out of her bed.  We told her that she stayed in bed and called us.  She has never had a night light in her room so until recently (3 years old now), she just would not get out of bed.  We also were ready to let her fall asleep anywhere in her room - CIO if needed - until she learned.  At the time, she could not reach her door knob so could not get out of her room and we made sure her room was totally child safe so I was not worried if she was out of bed and her hurting herself.

We are moving my younger DD into her twin bed this weekend.  She is 17 months today.  Going with the same plan this time around and hoping for the same great results.

I do have a gate on stand-by for my older DD now and she has only left her room 3 times since Dec 2007 and always came right to my room.  All I have to do is tell her that if she doesn't stay in her room, I am going to put the gate up and it works wonders.  Twice she has told me to put the gate up and then when I do, she has gotten into bed and gone to sleep and I take the gate down before I go to bed.