Co - sleeping, weening and crawling! Arghh!

[SuzanneSays]

Two questions really;
One: we co sleep with DD who is ten months old, she boob snacks through the night regularly. I have reduced day Feds to two or three ,but at night she is sometimes basically constantly latched on (or that's how it feels anyway). If You co-sleep how do you stop baby latching on?

Two; DD has started crawling, climbing etc. In the past I put some Pillows to stop her rolling off the bed, now this is an effective barrier. I'm worried she will wake and climb / roll out of bed before I get upstairs in time.

How have others handled this?

[lexyloub]

Is it not time to go in a cot??? For at least until you go to bed aswell then put back in with you if you want too.

[lexyloub]

And will she take a dummy instead of using you as a sort of dummy?

[NerrSnerr]

I would worry she'll end up going to sleep with her face in the pillow which is dangerous, and of course she could fall off the bed. It sounds like she needs to be in a cot before you go to bed.

[ChazzerChaser]

I had his cot pushed up to the side, so his cot was the barrier. But he never really moved anyway. Actually at some point I used to shift him from my bed into his cot once fed to sleep, he'd then climb back to my bed when he woke.

Feeding, I let him do what he wanted knowing it would pass and he'd naturally take less.

[SuzanneSays]

This is what I thought, but it is a nightmare getting her into a cot. She wakes at the moment every two- three hours, and I feed her back to sleep. Hence co sleeping.

Every attempt to get her to sleep
In a cot has been an absolute failure
????????

[CanISayOfHerFace]

We use a Baby Dan bed guard on one side of the bed (the side I put DS on) then piled up pillows on the other side. When he first started crawling he would move quite a lot when waking but now he just sits up and looks and the door waiting for me He never fell out of bed though and I had two flights of stairs to get up!

You could try wearing more on your top half so you're not as accessible. I remember phases around the same age when DS would feed a lot at night. Now it's only one or twice (16 months).

[SuzanneSays]

chazzchaser this sounds more doable. I'll try rearranging the bedroom tomorrow....

[Anticyclone]

We took the bed apart, put it in the attic and just used the mattress on the floor. Then falling off isn't a problem!

[ODog]

Can't help with the night feeding S I stopped bf at 5mo basically for this reason (but I regretted it so keep going if you want to!). We managed to teach my DS to get on/off the bed safely around that age as we too were worried about him crawling off when we weren't there. I didn't think it was possible but a friend had managed it with her baby so we gave it a try. It's just a case of painstakingly turning them around to get off of any surface (high or low) feet first. Within a couple of weeks he would do it automatically. He is 13mo now and other people are shocked at how adept he is at getting off of high-ish surfaces. It's definitely possible so worth trying. We also have a bed guard as he sleep on my side (DH can't sleep with him in the middle). HTH

[Acorncat]

Almost identical situation here. I've put the mattress on the floor incase he climbs out, but he never has. I sleep on the outside of the mattress, he's has a wall on the other 3 sides (tiny toom!). I have a video monitor so keep an eye on him until I go to bed. I find if I fall asleep feeding him he will just keep latching on so I try and pull my top back down and sleep a foot or so away from him or on my front.

[trilbydoll]

We've got a bed guard - it's extendable, when it's at its smallest it fits in a suitcase which is useful for holidays.