I'm afraid this will be a waste of money, but how long can a child sleep in a crib? My 2.5 year old has never tried to climb out of his yet, and I'm afraid that if he isn't in a crib, he'll just run around all night and not sleep! He already fights bedtime, and cries for his toys. He's very strong willed, so I'm afraid to see what will happen if he can freely move around. My baby is almost 5 months old, so he really needs a crib. Should I buy a second one for him? Or should I suck it up and move my toddler into a big boy bed?
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Is your 2.5 year old potty trained or will be soon, do you think? Will you want him to be able to get up and use the potty in the middle of the night? Although my almost 3 year old is still in a crib, I'm not sure I'd buy a new one at this point...
Although you could get one that converts to a regular bed and then when you want to move your oldest out of his crib, use the convertible crib as a regular bed for him?
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My son will be just over 2 when the new babh comes. But we are going with two cribs. I don't trust him with access to his room. He's so wild. Haha
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Could you buy one used? Then you don't have to worry about transitioning to a big bed until you're sure you're all ready, but you also don't have to pay nearly as much money.
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if you're not ready to transition the older one out of the crib, how about a pack n play? we just moved our 6 month old from a mini pack n play to a regular pack n play.
i bought a cover and sheet for the pack n play pad (they also sell a dream on me mattress)--it's been working for us.
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I am all about not messing with the toddler's sleep, whatever it takes, so I'd try to find a way to keep him in the crib- either a used one or a cheap option like IKEA, or like @edelweiss: move to a regular pack and play for the baby. You can buy a thicker mattress for it if that concerns you.
My 2.5 yo is still in her crib and it makes bedtime and nap time a lot easier to know she is just in there and can't come running out! Baby is in rnp now, not sure when we will move things around.
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My DD is just a few months younger than your DS. We got her a new bed for Christmas and moved our 8 month old from her pack n play to the crib. Since the bed was a gift DD was very excited and kept saying "I love my new bed!" So when night rolled around and she kept getting up I gave her many many warnings to stay in her bed until I eventually told her I was taking the bed away if she got up again. She got up again, so I set up the pack n play and she cried in there for about 10 minutes but aftrr that she understood that she is supposed to stay in bed and go to sleep and she hasn't had any problems since. I know that doesn't help you make your decision but just something to try if you do move him and it isn't going well.
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Our DS was never a climber but we moved him to a twin bed at 27 months in prep for baby #2... He did fine with the transition and sleep wasn't an issue. He just sort of got that the big boy bed was his new sleep zone and didn't try to leave etc. We potty trained a month later and it was an easy transition for his motn bathroom breaks!
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My 2.5 year old is perfectly happy in her crib and we have no intention of moving her basically ever, ha ha. Do you have a pack n play you can put the baby in until the older is ready to move?
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We just sucked it up and moved DD1 out of the crib at 2 even though she was never a climber. We had no issues and she continued to STTN. You could always try the transition first to see how it goes. If it's a disaster, then buy another crib.
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@Adira: He's not potty trained yet, and I'm not sure when we'll start. We want to follow his lead, and so far he's not interested in the toilet. He already has a twin bed, so I wouldn't need a convertible crib. We bought a twin bed when he was a baby, because we wanted to get the one that matched his bedroom set in case it got discontinued. He's always seen the twin bed in his room, but he's never wanted to sleep on it.
@Mrs. Champagne: My boy is wild too! He's always jumping on things and trying to climb furniture. I'll definitely not sleep as well knowing he could be going crazy in his rom!
@erinbaderin: I'll look into that
@edelweiss: That might work, but I don't want to have to transition him to too many different things. He already had a hard time going from RNP to bassinet.
@Foodnerd81: We have an Ikea close to us, so I might check it out
@Mrs. Sunshine: That's a good tip. We might try the twin bed before buying a crib, just to see how he'll do in it.
@mrsjyw: Glad to hear it worked out well for you!
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If it was me, (bc I'm cheap) I wouldn't purchase a second crib and do what I can with what I have.
We moved LO into a full sized bed at a little before 2.5. She did know how to climb out of her crib but didn't really actually do it. We had just moved and I figured it's a good time as any. She didn't really miss her crib (and I have to add, she always always slept really well in her crib). I figured she has to learn someday to sleep in a real bed anyway.
Now that LO2 is coming next month, we have had no issue pulling out the crib and setting it up.
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@JoJoGirl: We do. I might use it if we need to
@Andrea: I think we will try it first to see how it goes, but in the past, my son hasn't been happy with transitions
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This is exactly why we bought a new crib for baby #2. My oldest was 2.5 when my second was born and we didn't want to mess with his sleep. He always had low sleep needs and it was such an effort to get him to sleep we didn't want him to have free reign. Best decision we ever made. Honestly he was in his crib until about 3.5 when he was able to climb in and out himself so we finally put a mattress on the floor for him.
I found a really good deal at Target during one of their baby sales and got a pretty cheap crib with a free mattress so it wasn't a huge expensive.
We are soon having #3 so to us buying a second crib was well worth it.
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We transitioned to a toddler bed at 20 months and it actually went okay. The naps were rough for the first week but they got better after that. I would try to transition and just see how it goes.
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@aprild: I bought the cheapest one from Ikea when faced with this situation. I thought 80 bucks was a small price to pay for sleep!
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Our son was 2 years 10 months when he started climbing out. We switched him to a bed and he potty trained the next month. Everything was fine....We kissed naps goodbye, though.
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My daughter was 20 months when I moved her into a twin bed. She also had no issues staying in her crib, but her sister was due soon and I didn't want her to feel like she was being evicted! So I moved her a few months in advance, dreading it the entire time, and she took to it really well. She's been sleeping like a dream in it for over 2 years now!
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@mrsjyw: This was pretty much our experience, only we transitioned around 33 months as LO2 was due right at 36 months. We never had any issues with him getting out of bed at night and it made him more independent after potty training.
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We bought a cheap toddler bed, so he could keep his crib mattress and sheets for a little while longer when we moved ds2 into the crib. We bought it off of amazon, signed up for their CC which had a $$ incentive, and ended up getting the bed for $30. He's quite tall and still comfortably fits in it at 3 years.
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We had our Dd when DS was 21 months and bought a 2nd crib also because DS's bed transitioned into a full bed. Now we are expecting dd2 in less than 2 months and I think we are going to put dd in a bed. We have an ikea crib and really like it but dd can get her foot on the top of it and it's only a matter of time until she climbs out so we figured we might as well take the plunge. All that to say, depending on how tall your LO is check out how talk the ikea cribs are. I know DS's crib seemed taller and he couldn't reach the top with his foot. Good luck with whatever you decide!
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