Co sleeping 7 months

[londonloves]

Hi, looking for some advice please.
We've just switched from Next to Me to travel cot in our room, this was meant to be a precursor to moving him to his own room. He's waking a fair bit in the night though (previously slept through), possibly he's teething and needing soothing/cuddles. I've got no problem with this really, I'm just worried about him falling out of bed as he's into rolling now and nearly crawling. I feel pretty sure I would always wake up when he stirs, but might not and my partner wouldn't (we may take turns sharing with him)
Any tips on safe co-sleeping at this stage? What are people's views of bed guards?

Why have you not got a cot bed? No worry of falling out of bed then.

My lo was rolling by 4 months and crawling by 6. She can quite easily stand In her cot but is perfectly safe and can't fall out.

We took the side off the cot and cable tied it to the bed.

If only one of you is sharing a double with baby I think a bed guard could work. I was worried she'd get her arm or leg stuck down the gap at that age (all three of us were in a king so a bit more squashed), but we've used one on and off since she was 1 and no problems.

We have got a cot bed for him but it's in his room, I don't think he's going to be able to stay in it all night, so am trying to plan ahead. I don't think it will fit in our room next to the bed.

@AreWeDoingThisNow can you recommend a particular type of bed guard? There seem to be so many - like everything for small people!

My lo doesn't sleep through the night...happens once In a blue moon.

Bit if she wakes up I go in and give her water or a dummy... or at a push a feed. She goes back to sleep normally straight away.

Only times I have shared a bed is when she is teething and very unsettled.

Those times dh goes in the spare bed and she is in bed with me. I just put pillows down the edge of the bed. I always wake up if she stirs next to me.. or she wakes me up hitting me in the face so no risk of her crawling off the bed. I am now going through the process of teaching her how to get off the bed safely... hasn't quite got the hang of it yet

@Happygummibear how old is she?

Now 9 months. I put her in her own roo. At 6 months. She slept through from about 12 weeks till she had a 3rd lot of jabs. Since then she wakes once or twice. Apart from when she is teething and then it can be 4 or 5 times.

I co sleep with ds 11 months. He is so wiggly awake and in sleep that at about 6 months I packed away the bed frame and we sleep on the mattress on the floor. Bed guards were no good as he rolls all over the bed in his sleep.

So the dilemma really is that the spare room is fine for cosleeping as bed is against wall so he can go on the wall side of me with pillows in the gap by the wall.
But my mum stays two nights a week to look after him while I'm at work. So if I'm those nights he won't stay in his cot, he will have to come into our bed which isn't against a wall, so I'm thinking bed guard. gah. Maybe I just need to toughen up and persevere with getting him to stay in his bed but I feel like he's still really little and it's ok if he needs a cuddle.
(Don't even want to think about daytime sleep - currently having to rock and hold or walk buggy round to get him to stay asleep)

Daytime mine still either goes in pushchair or lieing on me. I will work on the cot during the day but I think it's a good thing that they get used to sleeping in other places.

However I always heard stories of people still sleeping with babies after a year and causing problems in relationships so at 6 months we decided to get her used to her cot. Only had to co sleep a few times when she was very un settled.

If she wakes at night and is upset I will sit on the chair in her room and cuddle her back to sleep.

Only you know the best way forward for you and baby.

For me I wouldn't sleep fully with baby with me as I was worried or would react to all movements and I need sleep even if I get woken up

We have a baby start bedguard, it's ok, not used others so can't really compare.

I will say, at 20 months she's still in with us every night from about midnight, and still bfs in the night, which we honestly don't mind, but I imagine that if you don't want to co sleep long term you may have to 'get tough' at some point, also we wouldn't all fit in a standard double now she's a starfish.

I thought we could maybe ditch the bedguard now she can safely get up and down, she proved me wrong last week by rolling off the other side when I got up to go to the loo and faceplanting the wooden floor

I had a look at bed guards but didn’t think any of them were suitable for little babies, limbs getting stuck etc. I seem to be a committed cosleeper these days although would describe it all as “path of least resistance parenting!” We’ve done, cot tied to the bed but then they start wriggling down the bed, bed against the wall, baby between us in the bed but have ended up with mattress on the floor which is the best of all really as baby cannot injure themselves and bed can be used unaccompanied for day time naps etc. Hope you find a solution as cosleepkng is brill!

We put the mattress on the floors known in some circles as a ‘floor bed’. It meant we could put her to bed and and leave her by herself.