A question for co-sleepers

[pookamoo]

We co-sleep with DD2 (10 months old) in our Superking size bed. She goes on the outside on my side, with a bed-guard rail next to her.

She isn't crawling yet but is quite mobile, if she shuffles and wriggles. She can turn over, and sit up from lying.

I heard her stirring earlier this evening and went to check her. She was sitting up, about 2 inches from the side of the bed, having moved down from the bed guard. We can't put the bed against the wall because there is a door on each side. I am worried she will fall off the bed when I am not there.

What do you do with your co-sleeping baby before you want to go to bed yourself? Do we need to put her in a cot now?

We have a video monitor so if they move I can sprint upstairs and intercept. We have one side against the wall, one bed rail. Can you use 2 bed rails?

That's not a bad idea, two rails end-to-end would stop her falling off. When they crawl, do they go wandering about the bed? DD1 was mostly in her own cot by this stage, so I can't really remember!

I took our bedframe apart and stashed it behind the head board in the spare room. So she sleeps on the king size mattress on the floor.
I have babyproofed the room and put a stairgate on the door.

Not that she moves when she is asleep, and when she wakes she just cries out and still doesn't move.

hmm, I don't think there is room to stash the frame, it's huge. We bought a bigger bed before DD2 was born because we were anticipating needing room for 4. And we were right!

When DS was about that age I taught him to come down backwards feet first, and we were quite messy so clothes etc were always down the side of the bed anyway so he had a soft landing.

We're currently teaching DD to come down feet first as well - but it's taking some time hence disassembling the bed!

bertie we are also quite messy , something I am trying to work on, but somehow hindered by small people!

I wondered whether everyone just kept their babies up with them (would NOT work with DD2) or went to bed at 7pm (I wish!) to avoid these kind of problems.
She is just learning to crawl, so coming down backwards is probably a little way off but definitely a good idea!

Hiya,

When my DS got to that stage I put the mattress only on the floor, we also had the monitor on, he would never really move, just call out but I did get a fright once when he's crawled off.....he's 22 months now and we put the already low bed frame back on as he's fine getting in and out now. Its not ideal sleeping on a mattress on a floor but it does stop the worry of them sleepily landing on their head! best will in the world, teaching them to crawl off backwards goes out the window when they are asleep and just fall out.

We opted for mattress on the floor too, babyproofed room,m stair gate. It's bliss to be back in an adult-friendly bed at last!

I make a nest for ds once he's fallen asleep with duvet, pillows etc. He's older (20 months) so I'm very relaxed about having bedding close to him now. And he doesn't actually go anywhere when he wakes up - just screams his head off. We also have a very low bed frame which he can climb on and off easily.

When we visit friends I usually grab a few extra pillows/sofa cushions to put on the floor beside the bed, just in case he rolls off which may have happened once.

We put them to sleep in cots, then they join us in bed the first time they wake. This sometimes (though rarely) means I get a few hours sleep before I have babies in my bed :)

We started using the cots once the DTs could crawl/belly shuffle. There was then a precarious few months when I was relying on waking if they moved around while they learned to get off the bed backwards (on to tummy, feet off, sliiiide down!). At 20 months they can be pretty much relied on to get down safely, though they're more likely to climb on your head than try to get down

happyasasandboy I think we might try to put her down in a cot and then move her later. The cot is up in DD1's bedroom, so we can try it !

At 10 months, and because we have no other children so could, we just had him come to bed at the same time as us (and lie in in the morning). For naps I put him right in the middle and listened for the first wriggle.

We tried a cot, but whilst he enjoyed jumping in it, he was less than impressed when he realised he was expected to stay in it for the night, then he learned how to fling himself out (I have no idea how, the bars were up to his chin, and we lived somewhere hot so there was no bedding to stand on) - the clonk as he hit the floor the first time he did it will live with me forever.

we have a futon so if they fell out it didnt really matter! but before that we would put a duvet on the floor so if they fell out they had a soft landing.

and yes at that age teach them to turn around and get down feet first.

We just put pillows on the floor around the bed. They have both tumbled out of bed a couple of times, and each woke up once and slept though the tumble once! I kept an intercom on for a while so I could hear if they woke up and pop up to settle them back down.

7mo DS sleeps between us and between a sleeping wedge - whch is now completely ineffectual! But it's a singing teddy, so help him snooze off if he's a bit restless. He's been crawling for a while and we're nervous he'll fall off but so far he's only been interested in slapping us to wake us up, staying up the top end of the bed and turning the light switch on/off - perhaps wandering down the other, boring, end of the bed doesnt appeal? We have put cushions at the foot of the bed on the floor, just in case he does venture down there, but in 2 months there's not been an accident. We're moving house in two weeks so might leave the bed base in a spare room and have the matress on the floor until we've cot-trained him.