Co-sleeping - do things have to change when baby learns to roll over?

[Tamz77]

My DS is 5 1/2 months old and although he cannot roll over yet, it shouldn't be that far off now, so I'm trying to think ahead. He's never slept in a cot - I don't even own one - he and I share a double bed and are both very happy with this arrangement. I'm now wondering if I'll have to change this set-up when he gets a bit more mobile? Do babies who can, roll over in the night when they wake up and plop out of the bed? Or would he not be so active during the night? I guess a bed-guard is the obvious answer but I'd rather not buy one until I've heard what other people have done, in case it's unnecessary. We have an attic bedroom that's a funny shape so it's not really possible to have one side of the bed against the wall. However I really don't want to stop co-sleeping as I love the closeness of it and I'm sure it's contributed to him being quite contented and an 'easy' baby.

I'd say get a bed guard - yes they can and do roll or wriggle off beds.
We co-slept with both ours, but they slept between myself and dh

Yes they do
DS1 co-slept til 14 months, DS2 at 20 weeks has just gone in cot his week, but comes back in when I go to bed due to snuffly cold.
Anyway, you can get a bed guard as Tamz77 suggests but what we used to do is an elaborate and tactical barrier of sturdy, high cushions. DS1 only fell off bed once at 7 months and although no harm done it is a bit of a heart stopper.
HTH

You can put a cot mattress on the floor like we did, incase he rolled off. Or pillows on the floor/side of bed. Ds2 is always in the centre of our bed so I imagine that when he starts to roll/crawl I will have sufficient time to wake up before he gets near the side of the bed. By co-sleeping you will already have a strong bond with him so you should instinctively know when he stirs.
But make life easier for yourself get a bed guard!

I kept the bed against the wall, but if that's not an option I would strongly recommend a bed guard. They don't cost much for peace of mind

Why don't you lower your bed so that if he falls out it's not a big deal. Our bed is just a mattress (no box spring) on a support that is only 10" from the floor. As it happens, both dd and ds were moved into a cot at 6 mo. (co-slept until then) and neither of them did much rolling over before then (dd was crawling for months before she figured out how to roll over). But we did put them both to sleep together on a mattress on the floor on our last trip to the us when ds was 3 and dd was 15mo. It worked wonderfully.