Co-sleeping and naps ...

[MegumiEto]

Have DS2's cot attached to the side of our bed so we are essentially co sleeping. It's been brilliant, so much more sleep than with DS1.

DS2 is now 10 months and on the verge of crawling (finally!). DH wants to put the side on the cot and move it away from the bed so DS doesn't crawl out and off the bed at night or during naps.

I am very reluctant, as I am bfing and it will be me who has to do the night waking, the getting back to sleep and the lowering into the cot that inevitably wakes them, just as I did with DS1. It sucked and I don't want to do it again! Leaning over and sleep feeding him as soon as he wakes is so much better for all of us!

I think it's quite unlikely DS2 will wake up without making a noise and crawl off the bed. We live in a flat so are only in the next room. I can hear him straight away when he wakes and I always put pillows next to him when he naps. He does tend to roll over while sleeping but not too much.

What do other co-sleeping mums do? This is starting to become an issue with DH.

Thanks!

I do exactly the same as you with my 10 month old with sleeping arrangements, naps and being in a flat. He's been crawling since about 6 months and has never fallen off the bed, despite my DP wanting to put up the barriers also, which I just point blank refused to do as it would be SO irritating for me with bfing at night! That is just totally unworkable for me! Also I like snuggling a cosy sleeping baby at night when we go to bed.

When he started crawling I sort of built up a barrier of pillows/duvet around him after he fell asleep. Sometimes he rolls about in his sleep but has never crossed the barrier.

To minimise falling off bed risk I also made our bed lower. This was easy as we have a Japanese style low bed so I just took off the wooden slats at the bottom so it's now a little higher than a mattress on the floor. This obviously might not be practical for you but, before I thought of doing that, I put a row of pillows down on the floor so if, for some reason, he did fall off the bed he'd have a comfy landing (he did this a few times when awake and thought it was fun!)

I also got a baby monitor (the cheapest one I could find, from IKEA, it's actually really good) so that the second he wakes up from a nap or after he goes to sleep at night we are in there. Sometimes he's kneeling up rubbing his eyes and squeaking but he's never launched himself off the bed, and if he did it wouldn't matter.

We are going on holiday in a month and are staying in a house where the beds won't be as low as ours. I'm taking the cot (flatpack) and will use the same set up with pillow barriers, pillows on floor and baby monitor and I'm confident all will be fine. Also, soon we might be moving out of our flat into an actual house with stairs and stuff but with the low bed I'm not at all worried, just so long as there is a baby gate at the top of the stairs it'll be fine and we can continue co sleeping until whenever.

Hope this helps - I'm just winging it with this whole thing, be interesting to see what others do!