It’s always been a bit of a burning question in our household. When should you move your little one from their cot to a big bed? It seems such a momentous step and also a pretty scary one. I was so unsure whereas Edd was all for it.
On the plus side you get to choose pretty new beds or cute new bedding. You kind on need to focus on these positives as it can be quite an unsettling time for some. This post actually started out when Laura from Rock My Wedding began chatting about moving Bertie to a big girl bed. You may know Laura from her gorgeous Instagram feed and the beautiful Coco & Wolf With Little B bedding you see gracing these pages.
Having gone through the experience twice now I thought I’d share my stories with you. Let’s just say one was incredibly successful and the other, well, wasn’t.
Molly
I hadn’t planned to move Molly to her big girl bed quite when we did. It wasn’t something I thought she was ready for but we sort of got thrown in to it. We had a cot bed so we would simply be removing the sides when it was time. Molly adored sleep and adored her cot. She didn’t try to climb out and would happily sleep for hours.
The crunch came went we went away for a weekend to Wales. To a caravan. With two little ones. Now if anyone has tried to fit two travel cots in to the bedrooms of a static caravan you will know you need Houdini like skills. It wasn’t happening. So Edd had the bright idea that Molly would be fine in the bed. It was a teeny bed so sort of similar and in a nice cosy little room. That night it’s safe to say I had no sleep. She cried, she got, she fell out of bed. Twice. I ended up sleeping in the room with her the two nights we were there which was no fun. On the plus side I had some early nights as I was in there from seven.
When we got home we probably should have just put her back in her cot but decided we had made the initial jump so just go with it. She was two and a half.
It was not easy. We were up and down the stairs about 20 times a night once she learnt she could get out. Considering she is two flights of stairs up it certainly kept me fit. You’d hear little feet creeping down or sometimes she was so stealth like she would just appear.
I spent a lot of my evening sat up in her room with her for hours until she drifted off. It didn’t help that we also made the decision to take her dummy off her not long after this. Gluttons for punishment springs to mind. Not only was she coping with a new bed but also not having her comforter. It was probably this which affected her most as she could no longer send herself off to sleep.
Over the course of a few months we slowly tried to leave her room a little bit before she was a asleep. Gradually it worked and she soon became a wonderful sleeper again.
She does still tiptoe down the stairs or in to our room in the middle of the night but she’ll soon settle back down.
Alice
Alice on the other hand was a breeze. After the Molly debacle I was dreading it and when Edd suggested taking the sides off her cot bed I was reluctant to say the least. She hadn’t tried to climb out yet but she had climbed in on numerous occasions so really it was only a matter of time before she attempted an escape. This was never going to end well with Alice’s clumsy tendencies. Alice was two and a bit when we asked her if she wanted a big bed like Molly. She didn’t but what does a two year old know? So off came the sides and we have never looked back.
I’d braced myself for an eventful first night but it never happened. She didn’t get out once. In fact she downright refused to budge. Instead calling ‘Mummy I’m awake’ the next morning until I went to fetch her. That call continues to this day. We tell her she can get out but she’s quite content to wait until she is fetched. It’s like she thinks there are bars there still. It’s so funny.
Only in the last month has she actually started getting up herself in the morning and pottering downstairs. She still rarely gets out at bedtime and tends to just call us if she wants us.
So I’m not really sure what the rhyme or reason is behind my experiences. We didn’t really do anything different but I’m glad both girls are now settled in their beds (for the most part anyway). How have you found the transition or are you planning on a move soon? Any top tips to share?
So timely. This is in my mind as we hand in listed building consent to make a proper nursery and face up to the barn not being ready for baby 2. New room new bed? Too many changes at once? Don’t want to have two cots on the go, don’t want S to feel 2 has pushed her out. S does try and climb out of her cot as is, and can nearly succeed, but is this a reason to wait or to go ahead? I really don’t want her falling over the bars…
Ugh. At least new beds are pretty.
Oh Lucy, so sorry to hear the barn won’t be ready. We had this same issue as Molly was nowhere near ready for a bed when Alice arrived. Instead we bought a new cot for Alice but just a standard cot, instead of cot bed, that was about £70 from John Lewis so not too bad. We moved Molly to her new room before Alice arrived and then they were both in cots for a while. When we changed Molly to the bigoted we simply removed the sides from her cot bed so it wasn’t so much of a change. Then after about a year we bought Molly a single bed and gave Alice the cot bed, with sides on, for a while before taking the sides off for her. Phew! So many cot logistics! xx
I recently moved Emmy into her big girl bed, she was about 2 and 4 months at the time. We used a book called My Big Girl Bed: A Princess Polly Book. We started reading it a couple of weeks before she moved and it really seemed to work. The day before we also went shopping, like they do in the book, and she picked out some new bedding. The transition went incredibly smoothly and she loves her big girl bed, so relieved! Would definitely recommend princess polly (there’s also one for potty training!!!) x
This sounds an excellent idea to get them used to the move and so please it went well for you. xxx
We are thinking about when to do this. Freddie turns three in December but with his sister due imminently felt there might be too much change to do this now. He is having a very “particular” phase shall we say and having just redecorated his room, we’ve decided to wait until after Christmas. He’s a brilliant sleeper but a bit of a contortionist so can just see him falling out, a lot!!
I agree that possibly leaving it a bit longer might help him feel more settled. It’s such a difficult balancing act to get the timings right. Good luck x
Four months ago (two weeks before my due date with baby number two) my first daughter (at two years two months) started climbing out of her cot, forcing us to take the sides off much much sooner than we had planned! It’s generally been a bit of a nightmare as she either refuses to stay in bed (and so falls asleep on the landing) or potters into our room in the middle of the night, sometimes several times a night. She disrupts our sleep more than the newborn! She is gradually getting better… I think (hope?). However, she moved into a single bed without any additional problems and hasn’t fallen out yet.
It’s funny you should say that about the single bed as I’ve had a few friends who had issues and then switched to a single bed and they were fine. It’s like the extra space helped. Hope she starts to sleep better for you, it’s no fun keeping an ear out for those late night wonderings x
I am often thinking about this. In our case it would only mean taking the sides off the cot bed however Anna (2 and 2 months) doesn’t try to climb out so no safety concerns there and when we were away in September, she slept in a normal bed in the hotel and got out what felt like 50 times each evening. I’m not sure I can be going through that just yet and she’s actually quite happy in the cot bed. Another {silly and stubborn} reason is that my mother in law keeps telling me she’s definitely ready for a big bed now and the more she tells me the less I actually want to do it. I think we can wait a bit longer yet but will definitely check out Princess Polly for when we do.
I’d keep her in a bit longer Kat. Anything to avoid those million trips back to bed each night (and to annoy the MIL!!) xx
I’ve been wondering this lately, my son is nearly two and hasn’t tried climbing out yet and dont think he ever will! He is a great sleeper, but in a morning he will just sit in his cot playing with his teddies until one of us goes in – no crying no shouting for us no nothing! He moves around a lot in his sleep so I’d be particularly worried about him falling out. We’ve only just introduced a pillow in the last couple of weeks in a bid to keep him in one place, but it hasn’t quite worked. Maybe a couple of nights he stays on the pillow, but last night he was on the opposite side of the bed most of the night. I’m in no rush! He can stay in a cot for a while longer.
I think keep him in if he is happy. No point changing his routine. He should soon get used to his pillow, it just takes a bit of adjustment. xx
This is in the back of my mind for early next year. Zoe’s two in January so I don’t think it’ll be long before we move to a big bed. I have no idea how it’ll go – at the minute she still sleeps in a grobag, which I think keeps her from climbing out!
But I need to know about that bed in the photos – I know it’s Ikea but how does the extendable bit work? What mattress do you get? And bedclothes? It’s so pretty, I think we need one! 🙂
Tracy it’s such a good concept! The side metal bars slide out and you get additional slats to add in as the bed grows. I got the mattress from Ikea which is designed specifically for these beds – it comes as one large piece then two additional smaller bits, again to add as you grow the bed. In terms of bed clothes, whilst it is on its smallest setting we are using cot bed size bedding which is a perfect fit. When we make it larger we will just go to single 🙂 xxx
Thanks so much Laura, sounds great! I think I have to get one. ?
I agree!!! Let us know how you get on 🙂 xxx
We moved my 2 year old son into a big boy bed in May. All my friends’ children are still in cot beds and they are making the most of them being enclosed for as long as possible! Noah was in my old cot from when I was a baby and its quite small and he actually managed to climb out of it once. So we bought a toddler bed from Ikea but with single size bedding so it can be used when he graduates to a single bed. Like you Lottie, we were up and down the stairs for weeks putting him back into bed and guarding the door saying he must stay put. He has got better but now he has figured out he can reach the light switch above his bed. Hours of fun (*rolls eyes*) !
Third try at posting……
We found the transition amazingly easy, I think I am the only one of my group of friends who have had no problems with moving to a big bed, ironically as my daughter is a terrible sleeper and always has been (apart from her first 4 months). It probably helped that we had always co-slept for part of the night so she was used to being in a “real” bed.
We had a standard cot, not cot bed, and went straight from this to a standard single with a foam bumper to prevent rolling out in the night. Our daughter was 2yrs 8 months. We started telling her about it a week before the transition then went shopping together to buy the bed and even assembled it together (Ikea came up trumps). We’ve had zero fuss and she actually started going to bed earlier and with less fuss in her new bed, though she still wakes in the night. She’s only ever got out on her own twice in 6 months, otherwise she calls for me (at all hours, urgh!). We feel really lucky that we haven’t had any bedtime traumas around it but I think it’s because we didn’t make too much of a fuss, just explained it as a natural next step and I think she was ready for it.
I’d highly recommend going for a standard single instead of a daft “child’s bed” as there is much more room for snuggles and stories, and for kids to roll around as they tend to do!
We’ve also been really lucky with our daughter who just calls for us rather than get out of bed. We did the whole process really gradually. Introducing pillow and duvet a while before we took the sides of the cot bed and also had the princess polly book. It probably is luck but she’s been a dream and now in a proper single bed now that our baby son is in the cot. Mia was just over 2 and sometimes I think that it was successful because she was young and it never occurred to her to get out. Friends who waited longer have had nightmares but I think it is luck of the draw.
Lottie do you know where this bed is from? It is perfect and just what I’m looking for for my little girl?
Hi Louise. It’s an Ikea one which is extendable so grows with your kids. A lot of my friends have it and rave about it xx
We moved our little girl into her big bed (cot bed minus the bars) about 4 months ago and although the transition has gone fairly well, in that she doesn’t fall out and once she’s asleep that’s it for the night. We have found that she has taken a whole leap backwards in getting her to sleep to start with. She is nearly 3 now and has never been great at going to bed, but now I find it can take nearly an hour and basically us sitting with her til she’s asleep!!! With number 2 on the way this worrys me greatly! I am really hoping a bit of tough love might nip it in the bud. Otherwise she is a great sleeper. I guess you can’t have it all! X