How do you bed share with a mobile baby?

[Findingthingstough18]

DS is seven months and normally a moderate sleeper - wakes up once or twice per night. Has been in his own room since six months. At the moment he has a cold and his top teeth are coming through, so he's waking hourly and inconsolable without a lot of cuddling, poor mite. Last night I really wanted to take him into our bed as we were getting almost no sleep, even taking it in turns, because we were traipsing across the landing all night - but I can't work out how to safely do it? Is he big enough to sleep between us yet? I know you can't do that with a tiny one, and I guess it would mean we'd have to have no duvet at all? If he slept the other side of me, or if DH got out entirely, then I can't see how I can stop him just rolling or crawling (he does a sort of wonky, shuffly commando crawl which doesn't really get him to where he wants to go but which does get him a long way from where he started!) out of the bed? I know some people have bed rails but I don't want to do that for the sake of a few nights!

Mattress in the floor.

Ds could climb out of his cot/over bed rails by a year old so this was the perfect solution. Just remember to put it up against the wall every morning and hoover regularly

*on

Yes to mattress on the floor

Ah, ok. We'd have to dismantle our bed to do that because we couldn't fit the mattress on the floor otherwise, so I'm a bit reluctant - might have to stick out the traipsing for another few nights (hopefully). I was hoping there was some easier solution I hadn't thought of because I hear people talking about co-sleeping on holiday etc

Sorry, that sounded a bit ungrateful - thank you for the help!

I had one room with a mattress on the floor and the other with bed guards. I had an open sided cot in between wall and bed, with no gap between the two, and then a bed guard along the rest of that side of the bed.
Child wasn't able to get out!

Just put him in your bed between you. And don’t drink alcohol beforehand.

Mattress on the floor worked for us but we were cosleeping full time. The other option is a bed guard.

Could you fit a single mattress/blow up bed next to his cot? Might be worth buying one for future use - they have a lot of teeth to come through!

I know you said you don't want to get a bed guard for the sake of a few nights, but it's a few nights now, and then the next tooth, and then when he's ill, you can use it if you go away and there's no cot.

We used ours on and off until she was two. For the sake of £25ish I'd just get one - less faff than dismantling the bed frame at any rate.

But then I always hated getting up and down in the night, the back teeth at 18 months nearly killed me and that was with her coming in with us after first wake up.

You're probably right - I guess I was just hoping for a miracle solution for tonight! I ended up sleeping on the floor of his room (not big enough for a mattress, so I just had to curl up on a duvet) last night at 4am, so I guess I'll probably be doing that again!

I just feel a bit confused because bed guards seem like quite specialised things and the only people I ever see reference them are full-time cosleepers, but popping the baby in your bed when they're a bit poorly seems pretty common, so I can't quite work out what everyone else is doing!

That couldn’t have been very comfortable. What are your sofa cushions like? Do you have a Beanbag? Could either use those on the floor next to his cot, or put next to your bed so that if he does fall out he has a soft landing?

You can get a foam bed guard that you pop under the sheet at the edge of the bed to stop them rolling off.

It actually seems to have been quite good for my back, but it wasn't the most comfortable at the time, no! I did wonder about padding the floor by the bed, but when I was contemplating this at 3am I had this fear that he'd fall out onto the cushions and suffocate - that's probably not going to happen with a baby who can roll and crawl, though, is it? It's more newborns that can pretty much smother themselves in a cushion? He is still far too young to have a pillow of his own, though, which gave me pause...

I had this exact same dilemma. Didn't co sleep, dd in own room at 6 months, fairly good sleeper etc. Then she hit an age similar to yours, perhaps a bit older, and sleep has gone to shit. Teeth, colds, all sorts so we bought a bed guard at about 10 months in the end because she wouldn't sleep in the bed with DH.

She's 21 months now and still get great use out of the bed guard (still not a great sleeper!). It's the summer infant one that folds back on itself when you aren't using it so we just leave it attached to the bed all the time and just flip it up when we need it.

I know it's not a miracle solution for tonight but honestly it's really worth it imo.

Put him in the middle and use separate duvets