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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

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Original poster

Crib/cot/Moses basket, what the hell?

14 replies

Badgerwife · 14/02/2011 14:51

I've started thinking about how baby is going to sleep when it's born, and I am utterly overwhelmed by the choices available.

We're on a budget, and I always thought a Moses basket was an extravagant and unecessary purchase. Ideally I want to co-sleep, but I also don't want to spend money on something that's only going to last a few weeks. Initially I'd thought we'd just buy a cot and remove one of the sides so it can be next to my side of the bed. It never occured to me that baby might need 2 beds, one for the early weeks and a cot for later.

Help please!!!!

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lindy100 · 14/02/2011 14:53

I bought a basket and stand for £15, local pickup, on Ebay.

DD slept in it for 5 months. By then we were kind of wedging her in but I found it invaluable. Didn't want to co sleep.

lindy100 · 14/02/2011 14:54

She was usually on 75th centile, btw, so not a teeny tiny one.

Alibabaandthe40nappies · 14/02/2011 14:55

Well I will be no help because we have three baby beds

What you will need, is somewhere for the baby to nap downstairs for the first few weeks. With DS we used the carrycot of the pram because the carpet was old and the pram was pristine, and then he had a hammock in our bedroom which he slept in until he was 6 months and then he went into his cot.

DC2 is due in a few weeks, and we've borrowed a moses basket from a friend to use for the downstairs napping and will use the hammock again in our bedroom and then cot eventually.

Is there anyone you could borrow a crib or basket from? Because I agree, it is a lot of money for something that is only used for a few short weeks.

Mirabelle77 · 14/02/2011 14:56

We did have a Moses basket which ds has grown out of pretty much at nearly 4 months. He has been sleeping in his cot next to our bed for about the last month. We still used the basket until last week for daytime naps. The basket was very useful to pop him in , during the day. What about an nct nearly new sale or something if you on a budget? You don't have to have one but I didn't like newborn out of my sight to start with , so daytime naps upstairs would have been a no for me.

Also I found that he kicked his blankets off and when he was around 2 months we used a sleeping bag and he slept much better with all his wriggling.

Good luck with your beautiful baby .

nomorecake · 14/02/2011 16:19

you don't need a moses basket.

a cot is just fine. just make sure you do the feet to foot thing.

you could lay the baby in its pram for day time naps.

HTH

ecuse · 14/02/2011 16:56

I don't think there's any reason you anything other than a full sized cot (most cost effective). People buy moses baskets so that the baby can sleep 'anywhere' around the house - obviously this is personal preference and as someone's already said you could use a pram carrycot for the same thing. Also people buy either moses baskets or cribs if they want to have the baby in their room for first 6 months but don't have space for a full sized cot in there.

CBear6 · 14/02/2011 17:03

If you have a pram then this could double as a Moses basket - all a Moses basket is afterall is a carrycot on a frame, which is exactly what a pram is. But you wouldn't even need that if you didn't want as you could just put baby is his cot for daytime naps as well as at night.

We had a Moses basket in the living room and a cotbed in our bedroom. The basket was £25 from John Lewis (same one is £29 now) but there are cheaper ones out there. He slept in the basket during the day and we would also put him to bed in it at night, then when we went to bed we would carry the basket through and put it in the cot, so he was sleeping in the basket in the cot. I did this because I thought the cot was a bit too big for him and the basket was cosier and more secure, he slept better in the basket than in the cot when he was a baby. He was 9lb 3oz born and the basket lasted us right up until he started sitting up unaided at about five and a half months.

growing3rdbump · 14/02/2011 20:33

I was given a Moses basket by a friend when expecting DC1 and will be using it again in May with DC3. It'll fit really well right next to my bed. I'm not going to worry about sorting the cot out until a few months after the birth (one thing at a time!). My DC1 co slept with us a fair bit and was a terrible sleeper. So I was much stricter at putting DC2 back in basket/cot and he slept much better overall...

IWillCountToThree · 14/02/2011 20:37

We used a pop up cot in the cotbed for the first few months, and the pram downstairs.
It was fab because when we took DD1 away at 4m we took the pop up too!

Original poster

Badgerwife · 15/02/2011 12:51

Mmm, by the sounds of it, I do want some sort of basket then; unless we manage to move into a flat with a huge bedroom - not very likely.

Worst case scenario, I can do something terribly crafty and cheap, diy a cardboard box and put it on the side of the bed lol - But maybe I'm not THAT cheap and £29 sounds reasonable for a basket.

Nomorecake, what's the feet to foot thing?

OP posts:

urbandaisy · 15/02/2011 15:07

Badgerwife that's pretty much my situation our bedroom really isn't big enough to fit the cot in and still close the door, so it'll be a moses basket (or carrycot from the pushchair with a proper mattress in it) for the first few months at least as long as it'll last, really!

growing3rdbump · 17/02/2011 09:34

Badgerwife - feet to foot is how your baby should sleep - their feet up to the foot of the bed / basket so they cant wriggle down under any blankets.

greenanaconda · 17/02/2011 09:51

We've only ever had a crib - baby uses that for 3 months or so then we co-sleep & naps in the pram during the day (when we're downstairs). We did borrow a cot from SIL for our oldest but he never slept in it.

mamadiva · 17/02/2011 09:56

A newborn can go in a full size cot, for co-cleeping with a cot I would take one side off and replace it with one of those small bed guards just so there is a barrier.

You do need to put babies feet against the bottom of the cot to avoid going under blankets but you don't have to worry if you use a Grobag which are fab by the way :o

We had a moses basket because my mum gave it to us but otherwise we would'nt have had although it was very handy for downstairs but yes a cardboard box with a matress would do TBH.

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