18 month difference, 2 cribs?

ohiostategal · March 2012

I am trying to figure out some sleeping arrangements prior to our move, so if you had LOs close to 18 months apart, please humor me. Right now DS is in a non-convertible crib. How long do kids usually stay in a crib before a toddler bed? I assume he will not be ready for toddler bed by the time the baby is here. So one option is we can buy the conversion kit to make it a toddler bed and buy another crib for baby #2. Other option is to buy him a convertible crib and use his crib for baby #2. Then when he is ready for toddler bed it is ready for him. Thoughts?

kittylove · March 2012

I only have one but I have friends with that age gap. One set chose to put the 18 month old in a big kid bed (BKB) the other left the older child in his crib. As for when the older child will be ready for the BKB, that depends a lot on the child. My son is still in his crib at age 3 and other friends did it at 18 months. I think the average though is about 2-2.5. I guess what I am saying is that there isn't a one size fits all aproch and you should think about if your son is ready for a BKB or not. If not, then I would buy a crib that can also be a BKB so that you don't end up buying a toddler bed right after buying a new crib. Good luck with whatever you decide.

emmyloustu · March 2012

My girls are 20mo apart & I took the wait & see approach. I knew we would keep Lydia in our room for 6mo in the RnP or cosleeper & then we would decide if we needed a 2nd crib. I was also hoping to be in a new house by the time Lydia was 6mo, but we are still in our too small house.

Well, here we are & yes we do. At 26mo, we are just now thinking about converting Eliza's crib to a toddler bed & figure we might as well keep her in her own room & same familiar "bed", just converted. So, we are ordering an inexpensive graco Lauren crib from wal.mart & dresser from ikea.

I would say its highly likely you will need a 2nd crib!

keg · March 2012

If you have an Ikea near you, I'd definitely check out their cribs. I love our Ikea Gulliver cribs because they are solid cribs and convert to toddler beds without additional kits. And one of the best things is that they are only about $100.

I wanted to keep my DDs in their cribs as long as possible. We converted to toddler beds when they were about 25-26 months. One DD proved she could consistently climb out and I felt it was just too dangerous to leave her in, and we just bit the bullet and converted for both.

pinkcallalily · March 2012

I think I would wait and see if you can. Our son was in our room for the first 6 months and didn't even use his crib for naps for a long time. We had to move him from his crib at 20 months due to his dangerous escape attempts, which left him hanging upside down outside his crib while grasping the slats and his feet on top of the rails. If you plan to keep the baby in your room for a while then I would hold off or even try a pack n play for a bit in case your son seems ready to move to a big boy bed. My son had absolutely no problems switching to a big boy bed and is actually excited to go to bed now instead of fighting it.

charmcitygirl · March 2012

At 18m, Jacob was no where near being ready to be out of the crib. We recently moved him (about 2 month ago) and we felt like he was really ready - and he was. The conversion has gone really well.

I would also think that with a newborn and an 18m old, you would want to have a place to put the toddler when you need to attend to the newborn.

I would definitely get another crib!

AlissaCell701 · March 2012

MiNe are 18mths apart and trust me you want to keep your 18mth old in that crib! Haha!!

Really though there was no way Jake is ready to move into a full bed or even a toddler bed.. I am thinking this summer when he is 2. But he is happy in there and I didn't want to rock his world much more then I had to.. The baby and starting school )3 days a week) has been enough for him to handle..

We did though go much cheaper on A's crib it's still stylish.. Baby Mod from

Walmart! But super cute !

laura1 · March 2012

charmcitygirl:
At 18m, Jacob was no where near being ready to be out of the crib. We recently moved him (about 2 month ago) and we felt like he was really ready - and he was. The conversion has gone really well.
I would also think that with a newborn and an 18m old, you would want to have a place to put the toddler when you need to attend to the newborn.
I would definitely get another crib!

Ditto this. My 2 are 15.5 months apart. We decided to wait and see...when DD was 3 months old, and DS just over 18 months, we realized that there was no way we were going to convert DS to a bed. Not only was he not ready (he was still running around the crib, falling asleep anywhere in it, and was all over the crib all night long), but we DS and DD were going to be sharing a room (at the time we were living in a 2 br apt). We had no desire for DS to be "on the loose" with a baby in the room with him. Who knew what he would do to her?

So DD stayed in with us until she was 6 months old in her co-sleeper (she was and still is small), then we moved her into DS's room in her own new crib (the cheap one at BRU - a Koala Home one). And there they stayed until just about a month ago, when we moved DS to his big boy bed a week before he turned 3. We had also moved in that time, but kept them in the same room since they liked sharing, but when DS went to his big boy bed, DD moved into her own room...I still didn't like the idea of DS wandering around the room, with DD in there.

Waiting so long, we actually just bought a twin mattress and basic metal stand for DS's bed. I didn't want to buy the toddler bed conversion kit, to then later buy the full bed conversion kit. And the kits cost as much as the new twin mattress we got for DS...never mind the cost of the full sized mattress! Some day we might convert the crib into a bed and put it in our guest room...but not any time soon Smile

mel72 · March 2012

Ours are 15 mos apart and we purchased a second crib. We converted DS1's crib to a toddler bed at just under 2 yrs. DS2 is super tall (36" at his 18 month today!) and we converted his about 3 or 4 months ago.

gringa78 · March 2012

My DD is 20 months and she is nowhere near ready to sleep in a toddler bed, so we bought 2 more cribs for the twins. All 3 of our cribs are the Graco Lauren - they convert to toddler beds and are inexpensive ($150). We had the same discussion though...but figured too much change at once might backfire.

ladychicago · March 2012

Definitely two cribs!!! Child containment is critical for 2u2. We had a non convertible crib for Anna, and so bought a convertible crib for Harrison, figuring they would swap when Anna was ready to take her front rail off. We did the davinci kalani crib, it looks really nice and was only about $250.

KYRN · March 2012

I say 2 cribs, and get a new one that converts. Mark is almost 3 and I just converted him to his toddler bed while I was pregnant. I would say you'll want to keep J in a crib as long as possible.

We bought them both convertible cribs so that we didn't have to worry about moving and when. When we move to our new house I'll change DS bed to a full size (his crib converts all the way to full). He's getting a little big for his crib/toddler bed but he hasn't outgrown it or anything.

amberleeb · March 2012

My kids will be 18 months apart. I Have one crib that converts and one that doesn't. I know that in 3 months Audrina will be no where near ready for a big bed.

Ali212 · March 2012

My kids are farther than 18 months apart in age but I can tell you that I would definitely get a 2nd crib. My older daughter moved to a big girl bed around 26 months which I feel was a little on the early side (in terms of averages I've seen of transitioning toddlers to beds)....we moved her then b/c she had started climbing out of her crib. We actually would have moved her around 24 months but there were some logistical reasons why we didn't that I won't bore you with

Soon2beMrs.Sivert · March 2012

We are still using our cribs. If it isn't broke don't fix it. I'd rather buy another crib. However, we bought convertible cribs. I'm beginning to wonder if those toddler rails will get any use. I think we might just go straight from crib to full size.

nicolita14w · March 2012

We did 2 cribs, and mine are almost 18 mos apart. My older son just turned 3 and is still in his crib. He still has never tried to escape, but we will probably transition him to a toddler bed soon.

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