baby sleeping in a side cot before we got to bed

[somewhathorrified]

Atm 7.5 mo old is sleeping from 7-10 pm in his hammock, but he's rolling in it and scaring the hell out of me so I thought it was time to put him in his cot, as it turns out I kinda like it being 3 sided and next to my bed. The question I have is how do people put baby in this side cot thing between 7 and 10 (before I go to bed) safely? DH insists that if LO isn't in his hammock he must go in his cot with the door on away from the bed and that's the end of lying next to my baby at night :( Any suggestions gratefully received.

I doubt it would satisfy your DH but for DS1 we lowered the cot to the lowest setting and then to make a bit of a barrier, just rolled up a spare king size duvet and put that one the bed along the side where the cot was. He always made a noise if he woke up so we just made sure monitor was turned right up and we'd sprint upstairs if he did sound like he was awake.

Ok, what's the worst that will happen in this situation? It's unlikely, but I guess he could roll all the way out of the cot and to the other side of the bed and fall out?

What do you think will happen to him if this happens? Do you have stone floors? If you have a carpet, he'll just get a bump and be a bit upset...or he'll go back to sleep like mine all do when they fall out of bed! If you're really worried, put a mattress or duvet on the floor for him to fall onto.

I think you need to relax a bit - really assess the risks and decide how big they really are. I know he's your first, and it's much scarier with your first, but trust me, he's a whole lot hardier than you think!

Actually, I think your DH is the one who needs to lighten up!

My PFB had a sidecar cot and I used to faff around putting the side up for her naps, and then I got fed up of doing that and stopped bothering, after she crawled to the end of the bed one night and toppled out and jsut went back to sleep on the floor! No harm done!

My next three babies slept in our bed with no sidecar cot and, once they got past newborn stage, just got put straight in the middle of our bed for naps and in the evening - duvet on the floor either side of the bed just in case they fell out, which happened once or twice but, again, no harm done. I can't see what harm they could possibly come to falling out of bed unless you have stone floors!

Thanks for the replies peeps. No stone floors, in fact the carpet and underlay in our room is softer than the cot mattress! Just realised I made DH sound dictatorial..he's not, it's just that if I hear a sound...or don't hear a sound from the bedroom, he's the one that gets sent up to check normally (the baby permanently has mommy radar on).

I've just moved my 8 month old into her own room, but before that and from about 12 weeks she was in a 3 sided cot pushed up to our bed just as you describe. I never even gave the possibility of her coming to some harm a second's thought tbh. We eventually did put up the side between her and the edge of our bed but only because she started rolling into me in the night and slapping me patting me affectionately on the cheek. There'd have to be some serious rolling / crawling going on to get to the opposite side of a double bed!