Silly co sleeping question

[Bearybasket]

I don’t normally co sleep but an increasing amount of people seem to swear by it (going by my sm feeds anyway) and my youngest is in my bed with me tonight as she’s ill and just will not settle in her cot tonight!

I’ve been absolutely bursting for the loo for the last half hour and I’ve no idea how to go without disturbing her???
Husband is away so it’s just me and her in the bed and she’s 7mo and can roll/will try and crawl off the bed if she wakes and I’m not there
How do people that regularly co sleep deal with it????

Just get up slowly/quietly, go to the toilet, come back and get back in. Sometimes they stir sometimes they don’t. No other more specific advice, been cosleeping for 10 years and that’s it really! If you’re worried she might fall off the bed put pillow barrier around her and maybe order a bed rail or two.

Like a silent ninja.

If you hear them stir, don't finish your pee, and run back.

Seriously though, put something on the floor as a precaution if you are really worried, but its not really necessary. Babies fall out of bed all the time and it's very unlikely they will be seriously hurt.

My worry was leaving her more than waking her. If she had have woken or fallen I wouldn’t be able to hear her from our bathroom.

We had an a&e trip with one of my eldest when she fell out of bed at a similar age so I’m possibly particularly paranoid tho

Neither of mine have even fallen out of bed and we’ve cosleept since day 1 with both. I have a video baby monitor and just keep an eye on that in evening before going to bed.

This is really unsafe advice. If a baby is going to be left alone in an unsafe bed you don't make it more unsafe.

You know the other solution...if you need to leave the room, gently transfer baby to the floor whilst they are sleeping. They can't fall from there. Probably the safest place.

I had a bed guard on the side the baby lay on. It was a long way to the other side but I wpuld put a pillow there to stop rolling off just in case - it was never needed.

This might be a bit extreme but I co slept with my kid a lot and I ended up just sleeping on the mattress on the floor for about 6 months. It meant that the worse case scenario would be rolling off the mattress onto carpet

I also moved the mattress to the floor as soon as I started cosleeping - advised by health visitor. 4 years on and we’re still here on the floor!

You can put a rolled up towel or a pool noodle under the fitted sheet on the mattress. Creates a barrier which baby can’t get trapped underneath (which could happen with a pillow)

So then buy bed rails? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Do you have a baby monitor? You could just turn it on and take with you to the bathroom, then if you see her start to stir then you can quickly run back.

Not being funny but how long does it take you to pee?! This isn’t something I’ve ever worried about, I’ve just rolled out of bed and got back in again when I was done. I did have a bed guard on one side of the bed, but that was more to stop me falling out as I was so often teetering on the edge.

Don’t use a Bedguard with a baby under two years old as they can actually fall down between Bedguard and bed and get stuck!

Just really interested those that co sleep do you have to go to bed at say 7pm whe your child does? As I assume they get so used to having you there they don't settle without you

Don't use a pillow barrier or a bed guard, they aren't safe for under 18 months. Put a pillow or yoga mat on the floor next to the bed if it's a hard floor.

Bed rails

I don’t really understand how this can happen with an older toddler and a properly tight fitting bed rail? Maybe with one that isn’t secured properly and can move a bit to create a bigger gap? Or a small or immobile baby? There honestly wasn’t any room for a baby to get stuck down ours, it was tightly fitted and properly strapped down, it didn’t move at all!

Ours is mesh, so plenty of scope to get wedged!

@lilahbelle my bedroom’s upstairs and both our bathroom’s are downstairs so it does take me a bit to get down and back up.

We don’t generally co sleep (she’s feeling better and back to her own bed now thankfully!) and my dh is usually home so it’s not worth us buying anything special for co sleeping or deconstructing our bed but it’s interesting to hear what everyone else does!

I put the king bed against the wall and stuffed mattress foam down any and all cracks. Flat to the bed. Then I had a bed guard on the other side of the bed but baby sleeps next to the wall. They’d need to roll quite far whilst I was peeing to fall out. I also had a video monitor which I could take with me. To be fair my babies couldn’t roll anyway!