the big bed

is the question when to transition from a crib to a bed? once they've figured out how to climb out of the crib, more or less

Howie was about two and a half, we needed the cot for Archie. Like Euler, we made a HUGE deal out of it. Character bedding played a big part.

Blimey..

Alice was briefly in our bed, transferred to cot very swiftly as it was like trying to sleep next to a breakdancing judo expert. Man, the bruises.

Around 6 months, she'd always jump up and cry if we laid her in the cot (no matter how asleep she was), so we put her into the spare bed that was in her room, with the cot pushed up next to the side of the bed for safety.

She's still a 'busy' sleeper.

did any of you guys have guard rails on the bed or just go cold turkey?

They both still do, but mainly because they are both "elevated", i.e. imagine bunkbeds without the lower bed.

lofts?

lofts?

bunkbeds without the lower bed

If that's what they call them, yep.

Over here, that's the attic when you've had them kitted out as (bed)rooms...

lol, we're still a ways away from this, but it's funny how much the idea of the kid not being confined in a crib scares me. like she's just going to keep falling out of bed constantly.

We took the front off Aidan's cot when he was 22 months, I think. The cot was really close to the floor so when he did fall off it was fine. He moved into a normal single about 3 months later I think. By that point he was used to a 'bed' and he only fell out of it a few times. We didn't bother with a guard.

Some kids stay in bed and don't think about getting out on their own. A was not one of these children....

well we took one of the sides off the cot, and he's been fine! fell out last night, when I came in he was on the other side of the room (!) but he went right back to sleep. have realised that cots don't give a lot of room for maneuver

Like everything else in my recent life, I rely on Flickr to remind me when things happened; this was March 2007, when Ava was 2y 1m (we probably would've transitioned her a little earlier but it took us ages to get the bedroom the way we wanted it):
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/171/431308672_ff962e12b8.jpg

As with most things, Lulu was a little later; we added the second (identical) bed in May 2009, when Lulu was 2y 6m:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3350/3552977936_02afcaac9e.jpg

They're extendable but we haven't had to alter them yet for our little shortstacks.

Ha, our two are both lankylaras.

i love how that room looks! where'd you get the beds, mike?

Ikea. It's the Minnen bed.

For some reason, I didn't get a real bed until I was 5 or so. I had long ago figured out how to climb over the rails and get out of my crib, so I guess my parents figured they didn't need to upgrade to a real bed or something.