Big baby cot options

[FruitPoppet]

My LO is only 14 weeks but 98th centile for height and weight, and is quickly outgrowing her next to me crib, which has a weight limit of 10kg.

She will probably need to be in a bigger bed before she's 6 months old and I love having her in the next to me. Is there something like a next to me but bigger? I've found a drop sided crib on a cheap looking site, but it doesn't have any safety info on it and it's making me skeptical.

For extra context we are currently living in a 1 bed so she won't be moving into her own room anytime soon.

I don't think there's anything similar as I looked too. Best this would be to just get a cot if you can fit it in x

I would just get a normal cot or cotbed which is stable when three-sided (The cheapest Ikea one for example is, and so is anything which converts to toddler bed) and put this next to your bed. Use bungee cords or cable ties to secure it. Check for gaps and movement every night.

You will probably need to raise the mattress up more than it currently goes, so check if you can drill extra holes in the frame to support this and be aware it makes the sides effectively too low according to the safety standard, so don't leave an awake baby unattended in it and use a monitor where you can quickly notice if they wake up or start to move around.

You will also need to push the cot mattress across, you can then plug the gap on the far side with either a bit of foam that meets the baby cot mattress standards, wrapped in a sheet or pillowcase (tucked in no loose ends) or we used tightly rolled towels and thin cotton blankets.

If you want an official one with a safety standard, BabyBay is brilliant but it's very expensive and hugely fiddly and I found it really annoying.

Suspicious products on cheap sites make me think dropship import with no safety standard and/or scam site.

I had three babies and did three different bedside cot solutions - homemade (2008), dodgy amazon I would be surprised if it met any standard (2018), third-or-fourth hand BabyBay (2021) and the homemade one was by far the best.

Get a chicco next2me forever. They are like a normal next to me but bigger and go up to age 4 / 22kg. DD2 has been in one since she was 6months as she was a terrible sleeper / we ended up cosleeping a lot and it was easier to still have her in our room.

You can usually pick them up on marketplace. All the fabrics are washable and you can buy new mattresses for them. Sometimes some of the online baby shops have them on sale (we got a brand new one for less than half price in a sale). Highly recommend!

This is it:
https://www.johnlewis.com/chicco-next2me-forever-cot-ash-grey/p112247950?s_share=jlappdroid

But as i say, shop around as I found it cheaper than £400.

It also turns into a standalone cot and a floorbed so you can potentially get quite a lot of use out of it.

I know people that use the Ikea basic cot as a next to me