Co-sleeping (but not actually having the baby in bed with you...!)

[beansprout]

I want to co-sleep with dc2 (due early next year) but don't actually want baby in bed with us. Partly because our bed just isn't big enough for three of us but mainly as our neice died of SIDS while co-sleeping and I would just find that option too stressful. So... am looking for something that allows the baby to sleep right next to the bed but don't have the space for an adjacent cot.

A friend has recommended the armsreach co-sleeper, which looks fine but I was just wondering if anyone had any other suggestions?

Many thanks

Can't you just put a moses basket in the middle?

No, the bed isn't big enough for that.

We got a bedside cot but DS was far more mobile than what we expected for a newborn baby and kept sliding between the cot and the bed so.... we kept the cot with the side half way up to the side of our bed.

After a stay in the hospital we noticed that putting him to sleep on a padded changer, covered by a towel, on the middle of our bed was enough to prevent him getting under the blankets however, when we realised about that he was already happily sleeping in his own cot so we left him there.

We had a bedside cot which worked quite well - the side could go right underneath so that there was nothing between me and DS - but he had his own space that I couldn't possibly roll into.

I've got one of these slumbernests for my 2 week old which is working quite well www.bloomingmarvellous.co.uk/product.aspx?CategoryID=n-cots-beds&ProductID=81925&language=en-GB. The only thing is that you cant use the breathing monitor with it when it is in the middle of the bed as it picks up the adults breathing on the bed too. We tend to put him in the moses basket with monitor for the first part of the night then bring him into bed in the slumber nest with us after the early morning feed. He seems to sleep well in both and I feel more relaxed than if he was just in the middle of the bed as we could not possibly roll over on him and the sleep positioners keep him quite wedged in.

I have a spare one too if anyone is interested.