wriggly 6mo; do we have to stop co-sleeping?

[dairyfreequeen]

my ds is 6mo and we co sleep, with his cotbed as a 'sidecar' with one side off, against our bed. This works well for us but he is extremely wriggly in his sleep and nearly crawling, i worry about him falling off the bottom of the bed. Is there a way to make it safe? especially before i go to bed at night, what do other people do?

Lots of people do co-sleep through their children learning to crawl and climb.

I can't answer your question because I don't co-sleep. But I don't think I would want my (nearly 8 moth old) DD on her own in my bed, it seems very dangerous.

I am still cosleeping on the same way you describe with my DS who is 12mo and very much moving! I keep thinking I'm going to have to stop, but so far have kept it going.

I have a video monitor and am very strict about keeping it with me and checking it at the slightest sound. When he wakes up and starts moving I just dash upstairs to stall him. I also have those foam bumper things around the foot of my bed and the open side - they are ok - a bit of a pain for me getting out and they do make me and DH more squished, but provide reassurance when DS is up there on his own.

DS does tend to work his way into my bed during the night and mawl my face until I feed him which can be lovely and can be irritating, depending on the time of the night and how I'm feeling!

The main thing making me feel like I need to stop the cosleeping is that I'd really like him to start trying settle on his own and reduce the night wakings a bit and I think I'd need him to be in a cot with the side on in order to do a gradual retreat type approach. But I'm so bad at committing to anything like that and don't have the strength to follow it through, so will probably just continue with the cosleeping until he goes to university

I sleep with my arm round DS, then I wake up if he starts to wriggle. Tho he only half wakes up long enough to feed! When I'm still up I have a video monitor so I can keep an eye on him.

I co sleep with my nearly 1yo. We have always managed to get him to sleep the first stretch of the night in his cot and then when he wakes we move him into our bed. So not sure if that's an option. I have toddler rails on the bed to stop him rolling off but one of us will wake if he wakes and starts crawling/clambering about in the morning. To be honest he normally will give one of us a firm swipe to the face before anything else!