Cot advice needed!

[sparklytoes]

Has anyone got any thoughts on what is best re. cots? I am thinking of getting the cosatto close to me as I quite like the idea of co-sleeping but baby up next to you in the cot. Also like the arms reach for the same idea, but am reluctant to spend so much on the arms reach when baby will grow out of it quite quickly. Has anyone tried putting a normal cot flush to their mattress with a side down so it acts like the cosatto? Is that safe?
Any advice /tips appreciated!
Thanks x

I know a woman who did try that with a normal cot and it suddenly fell apart one day (luckily withour her DD in it!). I wouldn't try that.

I've never used a bedside cot but people have said they're not necessarily flush to your mattress. I know it wouldn't work for us because the frame sticks out further than the cot IYSWIM. That means they've wedged a rolled up blanket or something down there. If you can, go and see one in RL and look at the design of it and your bed to see whether they would be flush.

I would imagine a bedside cot would make life easier as you don't after get out of bed to feed and it gives you more room in your bed. That's assuming your bf and don't have to get out of bed anyway to make a bottle! If I had known more about them I would've bought one.

We plan to have a cot bed as you can take the side off and it's safe. We will then attach it to the bed and I've been advised to use rolled up towels to ensure the mattress butts up against the adult bed. I'm pg with twins and looked at the arms reach but decided to go for the cotbed so they can share for longer - and we have space in our room. That way I can justify having a travel cot in the living room for day naps.

From what I hear, the cossato comes with fixings to the bed anyway.

I have a cosatto cot next to my bed with the side down. The mattresses match perfectly, but the cot side sticks up about 2 inches, so they are separate.

This is perfect for me as I use the cot sometimes and cosleep most of the time. I like the bars sticking up a little but, as they're no barrier to stroking, hand holding etc, but make a decimate demarcation between bed and cot (reassuring if I've had a glass if wine

haven't done it myself yet (disclaimer!) but the Leksvig cot from Ikea is designed to have one side taken off and comes with a bed rail that you are supposed to put on to convert it into a small junior bed so that would probably work and means you don;t then have to buy anything else for a couple of years. Its a lovely cot and Ds1 was happy in it from very early on when he grew out of the moses basket.

I used a bedside cot for DD and a bedside crib for DS (couple of years apart). Both we lovely, the cot was just marginally too wide for our door which was a total PITA as the whole thing had to be taken down to move it back to the nursery (perhaps we have small doors). The crib was lovely as DS was so close and being smaller it moved less so stayed in place with just the wheels locked. I got six months use out of it in the end, the side down gave a bit of extra room, think I got my money?s worth as it was an e-bay bargain. Same as this one (but not this one as mine is coming out again in a few months.)

We have the Cosatto bedside one. I thought it would be amazing, but actually it's not always that useful! BF didn't work for me, so I have to get up to make bottles anyway. Also, I had 2nd degree tear/stitches, and found it painful to get out of bed for the first month (have to scoot to the end, as the cot is right beside me).
It is worth it though, I think, just to cosleep without the fear you'll squash the baby!