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With my little boy turning 3 at the end of January it was time to move from cot to bed and this took some planning and reading as I always overthink things and want to minimise as much disruption as possible. There are some horror stories online about transitioning from cot to bed and my level head was telling me not to pay any attention while another part of me was absolutely dreading how bad it could be!
The little man moved in at 15 months old so the cot was ideal and to be honest, he probably could have had a bit longer in the cot but I really just wanted to take that leap to a bed.
The bedroom is fairly small and considering the various beds that are out there felt a bit overwhelming. The best piece of advice I can give is to ask your friends who have kids for tips and suggestions and then decide from there. With it being lockdown there was no option to be able to go out to the shop and see the beds and the quality of them so a lot of decisions were made reading reviews online. I looked at Ikea, Wayfair, Argos and some other random sites that came up in my searches, and rather than it giving me peace of mind it just confused me more. I measured the space that I wanted the bed to go in and started my search. I knew that I wanted a bed low to the ground in case he rolled out of it, which he did nightly for the first week.
I randomly came across ManoMano and they had the bed that i wanted, made of solid wood and not MDF, plus the mattress on special offer. I added them to my basket and left it a couple of days in case I found something better but nothing else was really catching my eye so I made my purchase and the bed arrived in under a week. Building it was surprisingly straight forward, although I did do it wrong at one point and had to unbuild and rebuild it 🙂 Here is a link to a similar style bed and price that I paid.
Next, I had to buy bedding and a duvet and all that stuff and no one tells you that these things come in far too many sizes and options that simply confused the hell out of me. I got the duvet, pillow, a waterproof fitted sheet in case of accidents, plus 2 sets of bedding all from George at ASDA. They had the nicest designs and value for money compared to anything else that I could find. It had to be dinosaurs as there is a slight obsession with dinosaurs in this house and the T-Rex set in the picture was a bargain at £9.99. Amazon have a similar product here.
In the top photo, there are mirrored plastic circles on the wall that I got from Amazon and I got the idea from Pinterest. I wanted to replace them and another Pinterest post gave me the idea to find some dinosaur stickers for the wall. I got these from Stickerscape, and they were effortless to apply to the wall.
So that was me all sorted and ready to set the room up. In total, I spent just over £250 on revamping the room, which I am happy with. The chest of drawers in the pictures was bought on Gumtree before my son moved in and I had this grand idea of upcycling the pine drawers to something colourful. The idea was a good one but the actual painting of them was a bloody faff and not something that I’d rush to do again. Although they look great and so many people have complemented my efforts.
I found some advice online that recommended making the move into the bed at the weekend so that if there is any sleep issues, you’re not having to go to work the next day and so I planned for it to take place on a Friday evening. First night in the new bed and I made a bit of a fuss. We both lay on the bed and read a story, we played with a torch shining it on the roof and we talked about how great it is to grow up and get a big boy bed. That first night i watched the baby monitor like a hawk waiting for restless sleep, running around the room etc. But nothing. He slept right through and when he woke he lay in bed playing with his toys and getting slowly louder until I got him up for breakfast.
For the second night, we went to the park near the house in the afternoon and played outside as much as possible so that he would be exhausted and sleep well. Its now been two weeks and the sleep routine remains good and he seems to love his new bed and the dinosaurs on the wall. On Sunday we threw a huge sheet over the house frame and made a den which we sat in, read stories and just laughed and played with his toys.
It feels a little strange that he is growing up already as I still see him as my baby but at the same time he is at a stage where his little personality really shines and I just love the interaction, the negotiations and the emerging independence as he becomes his own little person with personality.
What were your experiences of moving from cot to bed? Any funny stories to share? Let me know in the comments or get in touch.
