Customising a cot for co-sleeping/ into a side-car crib

[CityMole]

We loved our Snuzpod, but DS has long outgrown it now. He goes into his own cot perfectly happily when we put him down at bedtime. However, if he wakes in the middle of the night, he needs boob (sometimes on-off for an hour or two) and he is reluctant to go back into his cot. We are not set up for safe co-sleeping (there is no wall that our bed could easily go up against, and I don't think a bed rail would work). So, I am currently having to stay awake while I feed DS in our bed, or else making a makeshift sleeping area on his bedroom floor with him so he can feed while I doze on the floor. Neither option is ideal, and I am back at work now and sodding shattered half the time.

So, I wonder if Mumsnet can help a sister out. I have heard of people getting a cot and taking off one side and attaching it to the bed, but when we looked into this, it transpires that our own cot is held together by the two sides and would fall apart if we took one side off!

What we are looking for therefore is a cot that will stand up on its own with one side off (does it need to be a cotBED/ sleigh bed, is this where we are going wrong?)

Does your cot fit the bill, or do you know of any you could recommend?(preferably cheap, but I'll suck it up if not, if it gets me more sleep!)

Thanks in advance, MNers.

We had an old Cotbed that did but our new cotbed wouldn't so I think it's the specific type. If I were you I'd look on eBay locally and pick up one cheap. You'll also.probably need to customise it a bit to get the height right e.g. Drilling holes to change the level or putting it up on blocks.

Id try a bedrail though, that's what I use and it's much easier. When my dd was 6-12 months I used the bed rail and the sleepyhead so I could move away from her a bit

All cotbeds will do this. They are designed to have sides on or off, because they convert from a cot into a bed by taking the sides off. You just take one side off, not both.

Ive done this with 2 cotbeds and one cot, over my decade parenting. So it is not the case that "normal" cots (that aren't cotbeds) can't have one side off.

What matters is where the bolts are that attach the cot base to the sides. If these bolts attach to the long sides of your cot (the sides you want to remove), you can't sidecar the cot. If the bolts attach to the short sides of the cot (the head and feet ends), you should be able to.

The IKEA cot is probably the cheapest new you can find that flat packs this way. But I'd look at the send hand market - I see tons of cotbeds on Facebook selling sites, eBay or Spock (however you spell it).

They won't fate, my daughters one only works as a cot if the base is suspended in all four sides, converting it into a cotbed involves a different set up, so it's either a cot or a bed you can't have it with 3 sides only as it'll fall apart

The IKEA ones are cheap and work really well as sidecar cots.

Thanks everyone for the advice.

I've looked into it a little more, on the back of your helpful pointers. It seems that, like dinobum says, here are some 'cotbeds' that, when you turn them into a bed, require a totally different set up and the removal of the original head and footboards and installation of a new head and foot set-up, and in this new 'bed' set-up there is no possible way to keep one side on- it's both sides off or nothing. However, there are some cotbeds where all you do to turn it into the bed is take off the sides (or in our case, one side). The headboard and footboard remain the same in both 'cot' and 'bed' formats, if that makes sense.

I'm having a look on gumtree and FB marketplace for cotbeds of the latter category at the moment (although it's not always obvious form looking at them which are which!!)

I am also looking at whether it's just easiest to get a cheap new one from ikea. Looking at their website, there seem to be quite a few options for cots- is it the Sniglar one that works with one side off (it doesn't look like it will, from the pictures), or maybe the Gulliver? The website isn't clear. Any further guidance welcomed!

Both the Gulliver and the Sundvik definitely work this way (it says it if you scroll down their page, it's under 'key features'). We have the Sundvik and used it as a sidecar cot for ages.

You can also search for second hand drop sided cots as these will nearly always work with one side off.

To do that you need a drop side cot, which doesn't turn into a bed later.

Why do you say tgat kel? My current cot is a dropside cot bed (John Lewis - bought second hand). It will turn into a bed when my toddler is ready and had one side removed when baby was little.

I searched long and hard to find a drop side cot bed, it was specifically what I wanted. The drop side make a for a lower bed/cot barrier when side is first back on. Plus the fact it's a cotbed means the mattress size is bigger, more space to cuddle into.