14 Month Old in Toddler Bed

whenever I have changed my son's sleeping routine I have started with his naps and then slowly moved to nighttime sleeping. You could start having him nap in his toddler bed for a few weeks before you expect him to sleep there all night long.

When you get him in the big bed if he keeps getting out and you are worried, I suggest a gate in his door - really helped with my twins to stop them roaming at night. Means you cannot shut the door but you can keep an eye on them and they are safe from the rest of the house!

My girls are 15 months apart and I had similar plans for the beds before my mom suggested, why make my oldest adjust to all the changes? I thought it made sense since the nursery was already set up, but we decided to leave our oldest in the crib, in her room while she adjusted to the baby. The baby wouldn’t know the difference and I used a bassinet in my room the first couple of weeks with our second anyways. Then she was still little enough that we had her sleep in the pack in play until she was six months old. In the meantime, we set up the big girl bed in our toddler’s room, to make it a fun adjustment. By the time we wanted the crib for our youngest, the big girl bed was fun and new and our oldest was excited to finally sleep in it. But this allowed her time to adjust to the new baby and adjust to her big girl bed, without having to adjust to a new bedroom.

Congratulation for the baby to come!
We moved our son to his toddler bed (an new room) for the same reason: we needed the crib for the new baby.
We feared to damage the crib if we would dismantle it to move it to another room (it was to wide for the door), so we moved our son instead. At the time, our son was 18-19 months and he did just fine.
If you don't plan to have your baby in the crib/nursery before September, I would let you son in the crib until your grandma leaves in mid-July.
Then, I would convert the spare room into his room with the new toddler bed (with attractive bedsheets for him, with trucks or animals or dinosaurs or whatever he likes more), decorations he likes (wall stickers are an easy and cheap way to decorate a kid's room, together with his own artwork, and all his toys and remove everything from his room (toys, cribs sheets...).

Then, let him a couple of weeks to adjust to the new room and to get the idea that the other room is "naked" "empty" "boring". You can hand his name or picture on the new room so he feels it's "his".

Then, redecorate the nursery so that it's a completely different room (for us, it was easy: we went from blue cars to green and pink decors, stickers and crib-set). This way, he will not associate the old room as his room. It will be the new baby's room, ready to welcome the new baby.

It's important to leave some time in-between, so that your son doens't feel that the baby is pushing him out of the room. On the contrary, he needs to feel that he got an ugrade :)

remember that the more you will involve him in the new room, the more he will feel ownership of it. Our son (at 18-19 months) was happy to help position stickers on the wall (we let him place a few ones and he destroyed most by placing-removing-placing again... but loved that HE decorated his room) He also helped us choose the artworks (paintings and scribbles) to tape on the walls and where to have them, he chose where to place the small bookshelf...

Good luck

Don't sweat it, kids are capable of a lot more then we think. My two daughters (3 and 7 months) have shared a room since baby was 4 months old, and I was concerned that the baby would be using our walk in closet as a bedroom for a long long time, but it worked out really well. Also the oldest has lived in many different houses due to several moves we've had. She did fine. It helped when I could control the darkness of the room (she likes it dark and with white noise).

Good luck, believe in your little guy! :)

Buy another crib, it's worth the sleep. I didnt' read the other comments, but we will defintely buy another crib for the next baby. My daughter was just shy of 2 when we switched her and it was a horrible battle, with lots of sleepless nights. We didn't switch back to the crib because we thought that'd be worse. We both decided that the cost of the crib was worth our sleep...would pay three times the cost of a crib to get a good nights sleep! There's my thought. if you decide to do it, good luck and it might work just fine....but it didnt' for us. :)

We had this discussion with our pediatrician. Our kids are 21 months apart.

His advice was NOT to move the child out of the crib until they were trying to climb out and it poses a safety concern. I'd pass the same advice along.

Our daughter stayed in our room with us, and we kept our son in his crib until he was around 2.5 years. Oh, how we regret that decision now. He's only stayed in his room all night about 10 times since then, and 5 of those have been the past 5 nights for which we're bribing him to do it.

My personal recommendation is to keep them in the crib as long as possible - you will be much happier without a child who can get up and move around at their leisure.

Best wishes. Good luck!

I've had to transition three little ones to other beds due to new baby's arriving. My first one was going to be almost two when her sister was due. She was never a great sleeper in the crib, so by 15 months when she was screaming her head off, we moved her to a new bed (same room) to try and help the sleeping situation. She transitioned well (but we left her crib as a toddler bed for a few months and then bought her a new little bed for a few months). She was okay to "give" her stuff (crib and changing table) to the new baby. The next round didn't go as planned. My second was a great sleeper in the crib and she was only going to be 20 months when my third was due. We decided to keep her in the room until she was a bit older and put my son in the bassinet in the room with us for awhile. Two days after being home from the hospital, she climbed out of her crib and refused to sleep in there again. She moved down the hall with her sister (then almost 4 years old) and it took a while for everyone to adjust. The move from one room to the other was just as tough and adding a bed change to the mix didn't help. My fourth is due in September and we just transitioned my son to a new bed. He moved to a toddler bed (totally out of the crib this time) and he slept in his same room in the little bed for a few months. He did much better moving in with his sister because he was ready to be in the new room with them. We made sure we read books in the "new" room at night and made sure we played in there. He was excited about being able to move to a new place. Plus, he was almost 2 when we moved him to the new room with his little bed and could comprehend a little better what we were saying. Naps became a bit trickier because he wasn't "contained" any more in a crib. He does great now. In fact, they are all great sleepers now (for the most part). I think the age is key. Too young and they won't understand the entire process and it makes the change much harder. If you can work it out over several months, then it becomes much easier for them. Sorry to be so wordy, but we've done this a few times. It's tough for everyone to adjust after new baby arrives, especially when your sleeping habits are effected. Good luck to you and the new baby.

I had my oldest daughter in a toddler bed around 18 months cause she started climbing out of the crib. It took some work getting her to understand she had to stay in her bed but we made it work. As far as the old room you could tell him that is was a nursery and for babies and he is a big boy now and going to get a big boy room. Then you could decorate it with him and really make it his own unique space! Good luck!

Your son is old enough now that I think you can kind of talk him through the transition ok :) You could even start by getting some children's books at the library that talk about big boy beds to get him excited about it...then just talk excitedly about how after grandma is gone he will have his OWN room! and maybe even plan something to decorate it to his unique taste.

Try not to let your fears and worries about the transition rub off on your son, if you're excited he will be too, they take a lot of cues from you...and if he has trouble with the transition then you can deal with it at that time, try not to worry too much prematurely, chances are he'll do great! :)

PS now that I've read some of the other responses one more thing haha my son was over 2 years old and NEVER tried to get out of his crib, while I've had parents who's kids were trying to climb out of their crib even at a year old...each child is different, we transitioned our son to a toddler bed when he was about 2.5 for the mere fact that he was always calling for me and it was more convenient for him to be able to come tell us what he wanted...we did have to put a gate across his door for a bit as he was trying to "sneak around" hehe but now he does fine...you know your child best, do what is best for your child and your family, and yourself!

We had baby girls 18 mos apart. My first one was not showing any signs of growing out of the crib; a friend was glad to loan us theirs for our second baby. This prevented the whole "thats my bed" thoughts and guilt for Mom. Might want to ask around. A 14 month old in a toddler bed might be a handful.

I can't give advice about moving a 14 month old into a toddler bed as I don't have any experience with that at that age. But I had my second child last summer and went through the stress of how to move our 2 1/2 year old daughter into a new room. We have 2 bedrooms upstairs and 2 down. Our bedroom is upstairs, connected to the nursery through our bathroom (which is PERFECT with a young baby). We had our daughter in there, in a crib, but knew that we wanted our newborn son in that room once he was born. So we fixed up one of the bedrooms on the main floor - let my daughter pick the paint color and changed her crib into a toddler bed - we called it her "big girl room". She literally squeeled with delight when she saw the finished product for the 1st time. We had NO issues moving her. And then we asked it if was OK for her little brother to take her old baby room and she was more than happy to give it up. So I suggest making it a fun event - tailor it to your child's personality and the transition will be much easier. Again, I can't speak to whether or not it'll work well to move him to a toddler bed but not matter what, make it fun.

I think it's smart that you are concerned with your son's impression of getting thrown out of his room for the baby -- even at your son's young age. I've always heard the rule of thumb of "no major changes for the firstborn 3 months prior or 3 months after the baby arrives." I suggest you keep the baby in the playpen at least until September, and get your oldest in his new room as soon as Grandma leaves. Don't rush the new baby into the crib.

PS...You may also want to transition your oldest from highchair to booster seat, for the same reasons.

hi there thats the best time to get ur son into a bed to get him used to it ive done that to my two girls and ive never had anty bother they settle very quick

It's a bit young as he can get out of it any time, you will have to deal with that. Do you have a pack-n-play or one can you borrow for the time being, it's a little easier to move around. You can probably move him around more easily than you think, I don't think he's going to clue in as to why all this is happening, just be sure he's got his favorite stuff (blankies etc.) wherever he goes. Good luck!

We had a similar situation last year, though my kids are 20 months apart in age. We assembled the toddler bed and put it in the nursery, right next to his crib. We allowed him to play on it and we read bedtime stories in the bed, but then would put him in the crib to sleep. I had planned on having him start out by taking naps in the bed and sleeping in the crib at night for a while, but after only a week or two he wanted to sleep in the big boy bed at night. He fell out of bed the first night and had no troubles after that. When the baby was two months old we got the spare room ready (we were also delayed by company) and he had no problems moving into his big boy room and also had no problems when the baby moved into the nursery a few months after that.
Good luck and try not to worry about it too much :)