6m+ sleeping arrangements

[Haybails111]

I’m a first time parent and my little one is about to be 6 months old. Just learnt that the next to me is only for up to 6 months! My little one is small (2nd centile) but quite long so hasn’t quite grown out of the next to me yet so I’m assuming I can carry on using this for a bit.

My problem is that I’m not ready to put him in his own room yet. He’s breastfed and we’re still up quite a lot in the night for feeds or bellyaches. I’ve also had quite bad post partum anxiety so I’m never going to be able to sleep having him in a separate room. My plan is for him to go in his own room when he’s one and I’m not too keen on co sleeping as I’m a bit of a restless sleeper and move a lot.

Unfortunately I’ve bought the world’s biggest crib which doesn’t fit in my room so I’m looking for an alternative. What do people use as an in between? Is there an in between like a big next to me? I’m struggling to find anything on this so any advice would be welcome!

You can get a big next to me - the XL versions are deeper as well as longer. With the normal next to me, they're quite shallow so when your baby can pull himself up it won't be safe even if he theoretically still fits in it, as he could pull himself up and fall over the side.

You could also just get small cot until you're ready to put him in his own room? The cheapest IKEA one is £59 (obvs you'd also need a mattress) which is a LOT cheaper than a bigger next to me would be.

The Chicco next to me forever is a lot bigger and then can be used as a playpen or toddler floor bed. We have it( to be fair we bed share ) but he does go in it sometimes and it’s a good size. Mattress is quite hard though so we had to buy a topper.

We got a petite cot from mamas and papas

I recently bought the smaller size Ikea cot, Gulliver I believe it's called. Got the Ikea mattress too. An expense I'm sure you didn't want but seems to be one of the cheapest. It's perfect in my opinion. Petite but sturdy. My DS is 9 months old now and I moved him into it at 7 months. He's very happy/comfortable in it. I also didn't have much room for a bigger crib in my own bedroom so this worked out well.

I was going to suggest an IKEA cot too.

We felt the same when my daughter outgrew the next to me crib - we weren't ready to kick her out, and got more sleep as sometimes we could resettle her just with verbal reassurance!

We also got a cheap ikea cot - it was still pretty big, but not as huge as a cotbed.

She finally went into her in room when 2, straight into a toddler bed. Now we're hunting for a bigger bed for us, as age does like to sneak in for 4am cuddles. I'm not fond of cosleeping, but I'll do anything to not start the day at 4am! If you can beat em... buy a bigger bed?!

Thank you everyone! I didn’t realise there was a difference between a cot and a cot bed 🤦🏽‍♀️ I’ll look into getting a cot as an inbetween!