Moms of 2 or more or expecting second child...

N.Miller

I understand this question is very premature but I am quite curious what others have done.

DH and I own a 2 bedroom home and are expecting our second child in Sept.  Once the baby is born we will have the baby in our room until he/she sleeps through the night then we will move him/her in with B.  I have looked at getting a bassinet or a co-sleeper for our room and keeping B in his crib until we move the baby into his room (he will be almost 2 by then) and then getting him either a regular bed an putting rails on it or investing in a toddler bed. 

I guess my question is for those of you who have had or will have 2 children that need to be in a crib what did you do?  I am trying to go for the most cost effective route. 

Thanks

betsnup

Honestly, we are kinda right now in a "we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."  We plan on having the baby in our room in a pnp for the first two months at least, and we'll evaluate how D is doing then.  He'll only be 16 months when this baby is born, so we are 90% sure that we are going to have to buy another crib, but we figure we might as well wait as long as possible before making the decision.

1MusicMaker

We're transitioning DS into a bed in March (he'll be 22 months) to give him 2 months to adjust before the baby comes.  We haven't decided if we will just put the twin mattresses on the floor, or use the bed and just add the toddler rails yet.

BodyandHelen

I am not in your situation but I have a good friend who has two girls 14 months apart and they started with just a mattress on the ground for their oldest and move her to that BEFORE the baby arrived, that way it wasn't that the new baby was literally taking her place (so right after her 1st bday). That worked very well and then they moved her up the her toddler bed. I don't think they would have had room for a full sized bed with the crib in the room. Now, at the time, I couldn't imagine my boy in a toddler bed - maybe I am under estimating his maturity but I feel like he would be climbing the walls. Best of luck

Sawyerplus1

It might be a tough transition for your #1 if you have #2 and at the same time as you move #2 into the room, you also take away his crib. I would suggest trying to avoid so many changes at once (though I personally dont have experience yet).

Does #1s crib turn into a toddler bed? If it does, I'd suggest keeping #1 in his crib as long as you need, buying a second (convertible) crib for #2, and converting DSs crib when he's ready. Make sense?

If his crib does NOT convert, then I may look into buying a convertible crib. You can give DS the new crib, which will eventually become his toddler bed, and give #2 the older crib. Does this make sense? I guess my point is just to make the transition as easy as possible for DS when #2 gets here, especially b/c he'll have to adjust to sharing a bedroom.

In our case, DS has a convertible crib that we'll use for his toddler bed when he's ready (not anytime soon). We bought a second convertible crib for baby #2.?

Ciconrad

We recently bought DS a convertible crib.  The crib we bought when we was born was not a convertible so we'll use that for the new baby.  He'll be 23 months when #2 arrives and we didn't want to push a toddler bed too early with all the change that moving him to a new room an having a new baby will bring on top of it.  For now, his new crib is set up as a crib but when he's ready, we'll convert it to the toddler bed. 

destea1

We're keeping DD#1 in her crib as long as humanly possible, she loves it, I love that she loves it, I love that she's 'contained' so I don't have to worry about her sneaking out at night when she's up etc.

So, we just bought a 2nd crib. Her crib converts into a toddler and full size bed, so I didn't see the big deal in letting her stay in there and getting a new crib for baby #2. Baby #2's crib was $100 at IKEA and converts eventually into a toddler-sized day bed. Whether or not we'll do that I have no idea, but for now it all works out

jamie4duke

I had Teagan in a toddler bed by 18 months because I wanted her used to sleeping in a bed like that before Kelsey was here.  I wasn't going to buy another crib.  We were also moving and it worked out well that Teagan got her "big girl" bed (which was her daybed--she did so well with her toddler bed that I decided to switch her to the daybed) in her room and then the crib was set up in the baby room. 

Personally I would switch your LO before the baby arrives to a toddler bed.  That's just me though.

eris1995

The new baby will be in a pnp in our room for a while.  We're actually going to be doing some work to the bedrooms in our house the winter after the baby arrives.  Idealy it would be great to have the situation worked out before LO arrives - but the winter is the only time DH has to work on it.  We're making 1 big bedroom into 2 rooms.  DS will then move rooms.  I'm not sure when we'll put him in a bed.  He's actually still sleeping in his PNP. 

rbadam01

We actually just switched DS #1 into a big boy bed last weekend and we went with a queen bed that we already had in our spare bedroom which will now be the babies room.  We thought we might have to get toddlers nets or something but we taught him to get out of bed and so far he's done really well and hasn't rolled out once.  Let's hope it stays that way !!  I have to say though that he has been sleeping on a cot at daycare since he was 12 months old so I think that made it easier for him and we put one side up against the wall!

Mrs.tlcS

we have 2 cribs, but we weren't necessarily looking for something "cost effective" - we got convertible cribs for both kids - they'll keep the same bed all along.

N.Miller

Thanks for all of the suggestions ladies.  I hadn't really thought about getting another convertible crib.  Currently B's is a convertible crib, which might actually work better since the bedroom they will be sharing is quite small.  If I am lucky maybe I will be able to get the same one that B is in right now.