Big Bed Transition - Disaster - Help

In my infinite wisdom I decided that it was time to take the side of DS's (21mths) cot on Friday, he's pretty tall and was getting to the stage where he could leverage himself over the side, also the sides of the cot dont go down so it was getting to be hard work lifting 16kgs in and out and then there was the drama with getting him in the sleeping bag / struggling, kicking me etc.

So I took the side off the cot on Friday and we've had nothing but drama ever since :-(

Normally he goes down for the night with no trouble, sometimes a whinge and a muck around for 10mins then puts himself to sleep. Every night since the side went off / sleeping bag stopped its taken almost 2hrs to get him to go to sleep at night. Day sleeps are not great either. Once he's asleep its fine and he's stayed in bed all night, I'm having to put the blankets back on him at least once during the night due to him whimpering in his sleep.

How long did it take your little one to adapt to the sides off? I'm really really regretting having done it but cant tell if its the sides off / lack of sleeping bag / the cold he has / the visitor we have staying with us / day sleep too long so not tired enough at night.

Argh.

He just feeds off the attention if we try and get him to go back to bed, gets all over excited and silly. I left him to cry for 15mins after an hour of trying to get him to settle tonight, after the cry he crashed on me in less than 5mins and transferred to the bed fine and stayed asleep.

Should we just bare with it and it will improve or do children usually adapt fairly quickly when they are ready which means he's not ready.

Really need some help, I swore my head off after leaving him to cry for a bit - not at him or anything, once I got downstairs I was so frustrated

We weaned my daughter off her sleeping bag first before taking off the side of the cot. Figured one thing at a time would be best and it seemed to work. We also did it over summer when it was nice and warm.

I also rolled up a towel and put it under the fitted sheet, along the edge of the cot and it seemed to stop her falling out. I think it also helped her feel abit more contained. We did that when she transitioned into big bed too.

Not sure what to suggest other than lots of clothing layers. I'm sure that things will improve with time. if it get's too bad, I'd put him back in a sleeping bag for a while. Good luck!

We went straight to a big bed and made a big fuss of the bed. Collasped the cot and everything.
I kept him in his sleeping bag in the big bed as I didn't want too much change at once.
He loved his big boy bed and we didn't have any problem so I'm no help on how long it took for him to settle but wanted to suggest maybe sticking with the sleeping bag for a bit long with sheets and a blaket on top so he gets used to the blankets.

I'd put him back in the sleeping bag - might have been too many changes at once for him.

We kept DD1 in her sleeping bag for a month or so after she moved into a big bed before getting rid of it.

We just moved DD (2) to her big bed fulltime over the weekend, she has been having day sleeps most days since easter.
The 1st night we had lots of tears and getting out of bed and it took 2 hours for her to go to sleep, she slept 10 hours.
The 2nd night, she went straight to sleep and slept 12 hours
and last night she took about an hour to go to sleep and slept 10.5 hours.

She is still in a sleeping bag though cause she kicks the blankets off and i worry about her getting cold. I re-tuck her before i go to bed.

Perserverance is the key, stick with it or he'll know he's won!

We did something similar to what the others are suggesting.

We put a normal single bed mattress on the floor in her room and made it up as her big girl bed. She then got the choice as to whether she went to bed in the cot or went to bed in the big girl bed. One of the "rules" was if she was in the big girl bed she had to stay there until her night light (on a timer) came on in the morning. This meant she was allowed out of bed. Mostly it worked really well. She chose the big girl bed everytime. Occassionally I had to take her back to bed but she got the hang of it really quickly.

Maybe by giving him a choice he will feel a little more in control and therefore be a bit more relaxed.