Help! Advice on cots/co sleeping!

[miamix]

Ok, so I saw the Bednest, and decided that having baby in a 3 sided contraption attached to my bed would be perfect for access for breastfeeding in the night etc. Bednest retails at around £200 and the only other purpose-designed cot I have found (the Arms Reach Co Sleeper) is not much cheaper.

I was thinking it might be an idea to get a drop side cot for the purpose, and cleverly attach it to the side of my bed, because it is more cost effective, would last longer and obviously is multi-functional for when I want to put baby to sleep with all 4 sides up.

Anyway my question is has anyone done this? Is it safe?! Specifically I was wondering about the cot in the link below, whether anyone has had any experience with it and would be able to advise whether it would be possible and safe to do so? (It is the East Coast Anna cot.)

www.littleamigos.co.uk/p-256-east-coast-anna-pure-white-dropside-cot.aspx

Thanks ladies

The drop sides don't usually drop low enough to be bed height, so you'd still have a barrier to lift the baby over. And I don't think you could just put the cot together without a side. You can do that with cotbeds though, if you have room next to your bed for one of those?

I just removed the 'drop' side off my cot and bungee-corded it onto the side of my bed, its perfectly safe and rigid and the mattresses are exactly the same level (I have the John Lewis Anna cot and an iron bedstead). Works very well for us! I got the tip from here somewhere to roll up towels and poke them down the far side of the cot mattress to make the join between that and my mattress as tight as possible and its fine.

I did this - you have to gamble a bit and find a cot which will go together without one of the sides. You could use a cotbed as japhrimel says - but some normal cots will stand up sturdily with 3 sides on, mine did. Not much chance to test it in a shop though! Unfortunately the cot I have isn't made any more so I can't recommend it.

The other thing you need to check for is whether you can make more holes in the frame to raise the mattress to be level with your mattress. If this is not possible you might be able to raise the mattress by putting something underneath it or the entire cot by putting blocks of wood under each leg, but be careful that it isn't likely to slip off one of the blocks.

Once you have sorted the heights and sides out, you need to tie the cot to the side of your bed to prevent it moving, then move the mattress over to cover the gap and stuff the far side with tightly rolled up towels or blankets or similar.

The Hensvik, Leksvik or Gulliver ikea cot is great if you want one on a budget - can easily drill more holes, and it stands up with only 3 sides. Don't get the cheapest one (Sniglar) because it doesn't stand up with 3 sides. They take normal cot sized mattresses (but they also sell their own mattresses which are cheaper than most places).

I use a normal drop side cot which is directly next to me with the side as low as possible. it still gives a small barrier so that I don*t push my pillow or duvet into the cot at night but still can snuggle with baby. you need to tie the cot to the bed or there will be quite a gap in the morning.
my sister (different country) commissioned a bedside cot which was about 100 Euro, so not as pricey as shop bought.

Thanks for this!

Japh - that is exactly what I was wondering about this particular cot. I love the look of it but wanting to find someone who has used it to see whether it is still functional with 3 sides!

zgaze - I might be being completely daft here but is the John Lewis Anna cot the same as the one I posted the link to?! I googled it and it looks very very similar...

Bertie - I was thinking we would go down the same route with rolling cushions etc. I will check out the Ikea cots you suggested - thanks!

Thanks Sonilaa. Yes I would be tying the cot to the bed somehow, just trying to brainstorm solutions as would love a real cot!

East coast is a brand that quite a few shops stock. I'm pretty sure I saw the same cot on the Mothercare website.

As Sonilaa said, having a small barrier might be a good thing for safety.

Might see about the option of having a barrier (if not for just times we need that extra security - looking into bed guards) but to be honest the idea of having the side down and a seamless transition from cot to bed is about co-sleeping, so if our bed is made up safely for baby there shouldn't be a problem, but definitely a consideration.

I got a bedside crib from ebay for less than £30.00 and just got a new mattress custom-made from this really cheap online company, for about £25.00 as it is not a standard size. Just waiting for Mr Lazy to help me strap it to the bed, otherwise our bed sort of drifts away across the room.

Would definitely recommend, though still waiting for the baby to be delivered, so haven't actually tried it out yet.

What about a bedside cot - where the side drops away completely? They have the necessary holes for mattress height adjustment to line up with your bed, and they are easy to roll away from bed and use the 4th side for naps etc. Mothercare do one for about £200 new, if you google "bedside cot" you'll find others. I got one from freecycle (lucky) and DS has been in it for two years now

I got a bedside cot off ebay for £70 and bought the mattress new.

Just looked at the link - we had that cot for DD. I don't remember the drop side holding the rest of it together. You're welcome to ours for nothing if you want it, it's just gone in the loft. Ours was the antique finish though, not the white one.

I have a mothercare playbead cot and i think it would go together without the drop side as there aren't any bolts to go in that part, just a washer that fits onto a track which then slides up and down. I reckon it would be quite simple to put more holes in to get the mattress to the right height too.

Can I bring this discussion back to the Betnest option for cosleeping... I was just wondering if there are any parents on here that used one successfully, and how they managed the transition into a regular cot after the cosleeping period. Any advice appreciated, thanks.

Oops spotted a typo in my last post - meant Bednest. Any tips anyone?

I didn't use a Bednest myself but my friend did and said that she and her husband had no problems moving their little boy into his own cot (and his own room). They didn't have a plan, or gradual transition, they just moved him at 6 months and he was absolutely fine.

I co-slept with DS for a couple of months after giving up trying to put him in his own cot (getting up every 30 minutes to resettle a baby night after night was turnign me into a zombie). We're just starting to move him inot his own cot again and are doing exactly what you were thinking of: we moved his cot bed into our room, took one side off and made the mattress tight up to ours (we have a divan bed so can't actually attach them, but the mattress and bed/cot are going nowhere). He spent a few nights as close to me as he could manage to wriggle but now happily sleeps in the middle. Next step is to re-attach the drop-side, then move the cotbed away from our bed, then back into his own room.

Does anyone have a Gulliver, Hensvik or Leksvik cot and could tell me what standard heights they adjust to?

We are thinking of using one of these as a bedside cot, but would like to check whether the height fits first.

And yes, I read the bit about drilling extra holes - we're just not brilliant DIYers... ;-)

I find it very alarming to read of people customising cots to make them work like the Arm's Reach co-sleeper or other safe co-sleepers.

If you take a look at that cot in detail here say:

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you can understand that it has a number of safety features that make it very safe for instance the straps that go under the mattress and the fact that the baby's mattress is actually lower than the adults but the dropped side still has a lip which is higher to stop the baby rolling out and into any gap that could form from the adult mattress being compressed or the cot being misaligned to the bed.

I know that we all have to decide our own level of risk but at least one co-sleeper cot (not the Arm's Reach) has been recalled in the US as some babies died.

I bought an Arm's Reach for $150 from the US and got it sent to relative who bought it back the next time they were here (there are always discontinued styles to be found at different online stores in the US around this price or a little more) and there are also second ones on ebay.com (always) and ebay.co.uk (sometimes).

I actually think it is pretty irresponsible to post ways of customing cots that could endanger a baby's life.

We've bought the arms reach co-sleeper and think it is going to work well for us (baby not here yet - am 38 weeks). I would not have dreamed of customising something either - my friend's baby recently rolled over unexpectedly at 3 months!! Imagine if he had done this in an incorrectly fitted 3 sided cot, where as in the arms reach he'd still have been safe as the mattress is lower than then bed and it has a small additional lip. The arms reach changes in travel cot and a playpen later on so it is a good investment I think.

Just to add another option (like the cot Puddock mentioned) would be something like the Mamas & Papas Close & Cosy - costs £200 new but we got ours for £60 from Ebay (it would also cost £50 for new mattress from M&P). They come up fairly often there.

Like other co-sleeping cost this fits next to the bed - has 8 levels apparently, and a bolster to stop the baby rolling around too much - but also as a stand-alone cotbed so am hoping it will do both jobs and last a bit longer than the smaller ones.

Don't want to hijack thread, but those who have used co-sleeper cots - do you have to put them against the wall (i.e. one side of cot attached to bed and other against the wall)? All the pictures I can find of ours in use show it against a wall but that looks a bit awkward to me.