Crib to Bed Transition for 15 Mo. Old

We just transitioned our 17 mo. old to a toddler bed. We started about a month ago. It was fairly easy. If you think she's ready I'd give it a try. We kept both beds in the room (crib and toddler bed) and would put her down first on the toddler bed. If she got up and cried we'd put her in her crib. The biggest thing that helped was making sure she was tired and ready to go to sleep, otherwise she'd get mad at being shut in her room. Once we figured out that we were putting her to bed earlier than she really needed and adjusted her bed time, it's been no looking back and we've pulled the crib out of the room. Best of luck and congrats on the new little girl.

We've done our kids when they were little with no problem. Our oldest was less than 2. Our second was about 15 months, and we're switching our daughter when we move next week at 14 months and a day. Even though the kids were still moving around a lot, it didn't seem to be an issue. We switched to a toddler bed with an edge, not a guard. If you want to go straight to a regular bed, you could do the mattresses on the floor and use a side rail, but I would think the mattress would be safe enough. Once she's used to it, you can do the bed under it. The earlier you do it, the smoother the baby's use of the crib will be. We changed our middle one about the same timing as what you're doing, and it worked great. He never has fallen out of a bed. GL and congratulations!

Our darling daughters are 26 months apart. When we talked to our pediatrician he reminded us of just how smart kids are. They remember a lot and he suggested having her out of the crib AT LEAST a few months in advance. When we spoke with him, it was about 5 months before I was due, and he suggested any time in the near future(next month) would be great. That way, there is plenty of time to establish the routine with her in the bed, the crib has been put away( we were going to leave it up, but he strongly suggested removing it at least from her room, as if it was set up, she'd still associate it as 'hers') He also suggested taking her with us to go pick out the new bed.
Not sure if you're in SLC or not, but IKEA is in draper and they have TOTALLY affordable toddler beds- that are also way cute! You'll have to get DH to set it up, but we saw some for around $100! Best of luck with #2!

You can always try. I tried transitioning my oldest (for the same reason) by converting the crib to a toddler bed. i talked it up so he was very excited about it. He was several months older, actually, and he had a great attitude. he went to bed just great. The problem was that if he woke up in the night, he'd get up. He was so tired, he was miserable, and after 7 nights of this, I gave up and put the side back on. I bought another crib for $50 at a yard sale. It was more beat-up, but looked almost exactly like our first, so I gave it to my oldest and let him grow out of his crib at his own pace.

Hopefully you won't have that big of a problem! If you start now with the crib converted to a toddler-bed, you can transition her to a twin in a few months, before the baby comes. I tried to plan far ahead so my son wouldn't think the baby "stole" his bed (the crib), but remember that a month is a very long time for a toddler. So if you decided to move her to a twin bed at Thanksgiving time, she'd be well acclimated before the baby came. You've got plenty of time!

she's probably going to experiment with getting out of bed no matter when you do the transition. i think most people wait until their kids can crawl out of the crib simply because they want to postpone the fight of keeping a toddler in their bed. but if she can climb in and out of a bed, you can do the transition now. if you don't do the mattress on the floor, i suggest pillows next to the bed at first, even with a bed rail. my oldest moved around a lot in his sleep, so he fell out a lot too. it might have been better to put him on a mattress on the the floor, but we didn't think of that. my second was a better sleeper in many ways and fell only a few times before he figured out how to turn over in his sleep without falling out of the bed. still, the pillows next to the bed were helpful for those first few nights. good luck!