Cosy bed? Cosy bedroom?

[scriptbunny]

Hi, I have a 6mo DS who has been a chronically bad sleeper for almost two months now. Generally he'll go down for an hour and a half to two hours at a time, but the last few nights he's been worse which I'm partly putting down to teething. I'm trying to limit the amount of co-sleeping we do to keep his cot routine going. But last night he wouldn't settle in the cot at all for longer than 20 mins and I ended up taking him into bed at 10.30 - which gave us both a good night's sleep.

Could the cot feel a bit cold and unfriendly in this weather? The bedroom temp can get low - around 17 degrees. I have him a long sleeved vest, a long sleeved sleep suit and a 2.5 tog sleeping bag. The cot still feels a bit uncosy though. Should I just keep the heating on and bring the room temp up? What do people do to make cots feel a bit a bit nicer given that toys, bumpers, blankets etc are off limits?

SB

I am probably about to get flamed, but I use both bumpers and cot blankets. My LO is 5 months. I bought two cot bumpers and stretched them out so they go the full length of the cot on either side, as he sleeps feet to foot in a merino sleeping bag. I think the bumpers make him feel a bit more secure as opposed to just the open bars. They are v securely tied on and tucked down the side of the mattress. I then tuck the bottom of the sleeping bag in under the mattress and then use a cot blanket tucked v far under mattress on one side then I roll the rest up into a sausage and tuck that v firmly under the other side. I check on him regularly. Works well for us :-)

I have a heater in my baby's room with a timer-plug on it, which I set to come on low for 10 mins every hour during the night. Doesn't heat the room enough to risk her overheating, but has made a huge difference to her sleep. She's 5 months old and is only waking once per night, whereas before it was 2-3 times.

I also put a stuffed toy in her cot (out of her reach). The idea is that she associates it with sleepy time, and when she gets a bit older she can cuddle up to it as she falls asleep.

Like citymonkey I also use a cot bumper and a blanket in really cold weather. DD is nearly one now tho so a bit older than your DS, but yes, I like the cot to feel cosy for her.

I don't know about cot bumpers, I know they're 'frowned upon' but DD loves hers, part of her 'going to sleep' routine (as in when she's on her own in her cot), is just stroking it a little bit with one hand, then she kind of snuggles next to it a bit, so she does like it. I would think the risk of suffocation etc. must me massively reduced when DCs are a bit more mobile, I assume the danger is if e.g. they roll over, get stuck face into it, and can't roll back? So for older babies not such a big risk?

If you've got a spare thin single duvet, or thick soft blanket, putting that under the bottom sheet, makes it softer and more kind of 'nesty' so to speak, sometimes I think the mattress itself is cold IYSWIM. You can also warm it with a hot water bottle before putting him in (then obviously remove HWB!).

D

We have an old house that can be quite cold. So instead of wrapping my poor DS like an arctic explorer we got a room heater. (He is 9.5mo)

We have a standard delongi room heater and it has a thermostatic control. So i use the gro egg room thermometer to set the room temp so that it stays about 18/19 all night and that way he just gets a babygrow and growbag....

And like city monkey i had cot bumpers. He also has toys in his cot. Nothing hugs that he can get trapped under. Just a few cuddlies for him to chat to in the morning.

You could even wrap a hot water bottle in one of your t-shirt and pop it in the cot where his head will be just prior to going to bed.

Or tuck a small teddy under your while you do the house work and pop that in his cot later!!! Sounds a bit rank but the more it smells like you the better