Bedside cot and crawling baby - not going to work, is it?

[13Iggis]

Hello,
I've an 8 month old (ds2) who sleeps in a 3-sided cot pushed next to me. He wakes a lot in the night, likes to bf back to sleep. Although I'd rather he slept more, I in a routine now of just lying over into his cot to bf him or cuddle him back to sleep, barely waking up myself. The cot mattress is about an inch lower than mine, he can't roll from his bed to mine. BUT now he spends all his days trying to crawl, no obstacle puts him off, and I realise he will soon be able to leave his cot at will. What do people do in the situation, but the 4th side back on? (No more easy feeding). And if you've co-slept in the same bed, how did you deal with the crawling issue?
My daytimes have got a lot more complicated now he's on the move - dreading the nights getting worse too!

I've got the same sleeping set up as yourself. DD is 1yo and very mobile.

During the day I let her nap in my arms. Not ideal but I surf the net while she's sleeping. She takes one long nap so I get fair bit of MNing done. I won't leave her on her own in the cosleeper as she will wake from a nap and wander without making a sound.

At night, I have her in a sleeping bag so that makes climbing difficult. She just cries out when she wakes falls back to sleep after a feed. She doesn't go anywhere around the bed, just calls for the boob.

I guess it's fortunate that the living room is on the same floor as the bedroom so I know I can respond quickly to her as soon as she wakes.

Thanks very much for that, interesting to see how others manage! I'd struggle with the nap thing though - luckily ds is happy to sleep in the pushchair in the day. I wish there was something I could put up when he's alone in the cot (we had a bednest when he was tiny, you could just put the side up and down) - the side is just permanently off for now.
He has fallen off the bed once (though that was during the day ) so I know it is possible.

We put our mattress on the floor at that stage and luckily our sidecar cot lowers too. Like you we spent ages deciding what to do.

You can get a bedside cot that is the same size as a cot bed - I've bought one, it's a Mamas and Papas but I think Mothercare do them too. One side rolls completely underneath but you can roll it back up whenever - only thing is you'd need quite a bit of space at the side of your bed to be able to roll the side back up as it sort of slides out to the side and then slots underneath the base and you need space to pull the whole thing out and hook it back up.

Could you use a bed guard on the edge of your bed when he's alone?

I found this wasn't as much of a problem as I anticipated. DD moved a lot in her sleep around that age but she had a sleeping bag on which stopped her getting too far. And it was only a problem in the time between putting her down and me going to bed as my being there next to her stopped her getting out. Once she mastered each stage (walking, standing, crawling) she stopped trying to do it at night, and never really made any attempt to escape from the bed. She still (20mo) sleeps in a proper bed although now without us. So, you might be lucky and find that it really doesn't cause you problems :)

Lots of replies! Thank you
Very short on room for a different cot. Have a feeling if we put the mattress on the floor the cot on lowest setting would be higher than it, but can investigate that. We'd have to throw out the divan base! Would take me back to my student days
A bed guard is an idea, but didn't think you got them in double size (ds1 has one on his single bed). Plus I couldn't put it up and down when he was in.
Starting now to imagine fashioning some barrier that could slide in and out and would of course be entirely safe and baby proof..
Hopefully, Wanderingalbatross will be right and it won't be much of an issue.

The bed guard would fit under your mattress, and would only need to cover the entrance to the cot area - you can remove it from your bed when you go to bed, you'd just have to lift your mattress a bit to slide it out. I reckon if you practiced a bit you could do it without disturbing your DS.

I will have to bookmark all this for when DC2 (due this week) is big enough to escape from the bedside cot... I didn't buy it until DD was about 8 months old and she wouldn't sleep in it so we co slept (without DH, he was in the spare room), and she was a very inert baby and didn't crawl til nearly 12 months so didn't have this issue first time around!

Have decided what I actually need is some kind of tripwire to alert me to him leaving the cot - then I'd have a few seconds to rush in before he could reach the edge of the bed. Or an electric fence.

Wanderingalbatross - did you still have her next to you when you had to put the cot on its lowest setting? (I think when they can pull up?). Not sure how that would work with my plan. Definitely don't want him taking a tumble out the other side of the cot!
Emsyj good luck for the delivery

13Iggis we stuck with a (large) bednest type cot rather than a proper one, and DD never fell out the other side. Although, we did start putting her to sleep in the bed itself so she wasn't near the edge, and just moving her across when we came to bed.

Like the tripwire idea ;)
Still cosleeping in bed + bedside cot with 2 year old DS, never considered putting the side up, either with him or his big brother (now in own bed). Personally I don't like bed guards either, they get in everyone's way and babies tend to try to climb over them giving them further to fall.
Main thing IMO is to teach him how to descend from your bed safely. If he can crawl, he can learn to go feet first, tummy down, onto the ground. If you show him a few times, it'll become automatic. If he's awake enough to be crawling, he'll be awake enough to remember how to do this. I stayed close by for a month or two so I could check on him stirring, until I felt confident that he'd got this mastered. Something soft on the floor, like your duvet/pillows, if you think it'd help.

I hadn't thought of teaching him to get off the bed. Before this week, it was more rolling, but he's now crawling so could try. Though we'd have to keep the floor tidier! (I say we, but mean dh and his pockets)
I actually thought could make a tripwire effect with all those toys that go off the minute you touch them laid around the perimeter of his cot - then realised would only be tempting him to explore!