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Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler.

Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler.

Sleep

Cosleeping 15 month old, can he be left in bed alone? How?

18 replies

Crunchymunchyhoneycakes · 04/09/2013 09:27

Just wanting some suggestions/advice from other cosleeping parents. Our situation at the moment is that my ds2 sleeps in the bed with us, next to me, with a bed guard stopping him rolling out that side. He has a good bedtime routine, we all eat together about 5/5.30, he has a bath then a wee play then stories and then bed about 7 where he breastfeeds to sleep. I (or sometimes my husband) then sit through in the bedroom with him in the dark for the rest of the evening
It would be nice to leave him through there and have some evening time together, watch some telly maybe even have sex but we are worried he might wake up and fall out of bed/ roll out the other side. Is that daft? We are hoping to move him to his own bed once he's two but at the moment we don't have the space for a bed for him so he needs to be in with us really and I also love having him in with us tbh. We can't take the mattress off the bed frame and put it on the floor because my husband has health issues which mean he couldn't get up and down from a lower bed very easily.
What did other people do? Would he be safe enough with a monitor on? Our house is pretty small and all on one level so it wouldn't take us long to get to him. Am I being totally precious about this?

Any suggestions gratefully accepted

OP posts:

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AndIFeedEmGunpowder · 04/09/2013 09:39

I leave DD now. (she's 1) I put pillows down each side of the bed so she is really unlikely to roll out. I suppose she could crawl out but she always makes a noise when she wakes up. I have the monitor on and run to her room to check if I hear a noise.

Crunchymunchyhoneycakes · 04/09/2013 09:51

Right, I shall dig out the baby monitor. I think it needs new rechargeable batteries for the parent unit so I'll get some today.

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AndIFeedEmGunpowder · 04/09/2013 11:07

It is worth it! So lovely to watch a film together and have grown up time.

tywysogesgymraeg · 04/09/2013 11:11

My DDs used to fall out of bed regularly, but they rarely woke up if they did. I figured that if they didn't wake up, then they obviously weren't hurting themselves, but put some pillows/cushions on the floor next to the bed just in case.

Do you really sit in the dark all evening watching DS sleeping? What on earth do you do?

I'd suggest that the sooner you can get him into his own room and his own bed/cot the easier it will be for everyone.

Crunchymunchyhoneycakes · 04/09/2013 11:32

I just potter about on my iPad or read, it's been fine really but I feel like he's big enough to leave really.

I understand cosleeping isn't everyone's bag but I'm in no hurry to get him into his own bed or his own room (we don't actually have either of those things available at the moment either). I figure in the grand scheme of his life(and mine) 2 years of very secure sleep next to his mum isn't a massive ask tbh. What's easiest isn't the primary factor for us, as a family, but like I said I understand different things work for different people.

Perhaps I should have been clearer that I really wasn't looking for the suggestion that we get him into his own bed because we aren't actually interested in doing that at the moment.

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TheHuffAndPuffALot · 04/09/2013 11:43

We had a cot next to the bed with the side taken off, and dd would sleep in there. We had to put it on blocks so the mattresses were the same height though.
And we got a video monitor so I could keep an eye on her as I was paranoid she wake up and crawl off the bed!

Crunchymunchyhoneycakes · 04/09/2013 12:08

I had a bedside cot with my older ds but the house we are in now has such small bedrooms we can't fit one in!
Video monitor is a possibility but too pricey I think...

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missnevermind · 04/09/2013 12:14

We are still co sleeping with DC4 and she has just turned 2.
She falls to sleep on a lap about 7.30. Then whoever has her has a cuddle for a while and takes her up to bed. We just put the pillows longwise untill we go up.
We have been doing this for a while now. And certainly did it regularly from less than a year old. Co sleeping is nice but so is adult time.

SignoraStronza · 04/09/2013 13:55

I just left her on the bed with the bed rail up and some cushions the other side. She'd usually make a noise in waking up and slowly sit up. If I really took my time shed be standing rattling the bed rail.

Now (14 months) she's in a toddler bed, as she falls asleep on me and then put in there until she wakes up again. She can get in and out of it safely and there is a bed rail. If I tried to put her into a cot (am only 5ft) and wake up screaming!

Crunchymunchyhoneycakes · 04/09/2013 18:38

We're going to try the monitor and some pillows on the side with no bed rail and see how it goes. Thanks.

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AndIFeedEmGunpowder · 04/09/2013 18:57

Yay! Good luck. I reckon you can have co-sleeping and time together, best of both worlds

AndIFeedEmGunpowder · 04/09/2013 19:01

Ooh we don't have a video monitor, but at the beginning when I first started leaving her DH and I would FaceTime/Skype between our phones so we could see her, so that's always an option if you have phones/pc that can do video calling and broadband. Sounds like you'll be close enough not to worry though (like us!)

Coconutfeet · 04/09/2013 19:58

What about having a bed rail on each side for extra security?

Andcake · 04/09/2013 21:15

We leave one yr old ds - we have taken the side off a cot on my side which gives us more space. We then put pillows on the other until I go to bed and jump at any noise. We're in a flat o v easy to do.
Cosleeping is lovely - and tbh I not think I'd be fit to work without t!

plummyjam · 05/09/2013 08:07

Have you got an iphone as well as an ipad? There is a video monitor app you can download (Best Baby Monitor). You download the app onto each device, put the ipad next to the baby with the camera pointing towards it and it will stream live video and sound to your iphone. I think it works via Bluetooth when wifi isn't available.

We went to visit in-laws and forgot to take our baby monitor so used this app instead and it's absolutely fab, great to be able to see the baby so you don't have to go and check at every sound - and it only costs £5 IIRC (£2.50 for each device). Might be a good option for you.

YoniBottsBumgina · 05/09/2013 08:14

I left DS from about 8 months IIRC. He only fell out when I left him too close to the edge. We had a bedside cot and I used to leave him either in that or on that side of the bed, he fell out twice, once when I was in bed with him but had fallen asleep with him on the wrong side and XP wasn't in the bed, and another time when he had fallen asleep on the "open" edge of the bed but I was too worried to move him in case he woke up. He never ever fell out when I left him in the cot itself or on the cot side of the bed.

I always stayed until he was asleep and we used a sound monitor, we had a very rustly mattress protector which we could hear if he had actually woken up and started crawling or if he was rolling towards the edge and I could go up and move him before it was too late!

Jergens · 05/09/2013 09:16

What about a rolled up towel between sheet and mattress on open side? We did this on holiday and it was enough to stop DD fr rolling out.

MoaningMingeWhingesAgain · 05/09/2013 09:22

at 15m DS was in a single bed with a rail. He climbed out to come into our bed most nights and still does but I never felt I needed to stay in the room. no monitor either but we have a tiny house.

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