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Original poster

Bedside cot - is it worth the expense?

17 replies

Lucyand2 · 04/09/2007 08:31

When my DD was very little we co-slept but I found I couldn't quite relax with her next to me in bed. I was thinking of trying one of those bedside cot things with the next one as it was still easier to have her next to me instead of in her moses basket.
The bedside cots I've seen are quite pricey so I was wondering if they're worth the expense? Anyone tried them?

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nozmum · 04/09/2007 14:46

No! Get a normal one, put the base on the highest setting and the dropside on the lowest setting and Voila! The baby will be at the height of your bed separated from you by just a low side, easy to pick up or pat but not at risk of falling down the gap... (We used the East Coast Anna cot..very good)

pooka · 04/09/2007 14:50

With dd she was in a rigid sided cot when she moved out of the carrycot. Bloody pain.
With ds, he went straight from carry cot to a bedside crib. Was absolutely brillant. Made all the difference in the early days semi-co-sleeping. He was in it for a fair time, until he started mving more. The only negative was that while the crib was the same height as the bed, the frame of the bed (ikea) was between our matress and his. So I rolled up a flannelette sheet ust in case he moved over at all, so it was all level.

Mumpbump · 04/09/2007 14:55

I second nozmum. That's what we did with ds. The other thing is that different beds are at different heights so not sure how you can be 100% certain that the bedside cot is going to match your bed...

ImBarryScott · 04/09/2007 14:59

I love mine - I bought it when DD outgrew her moses basket and was still waking a million times each night. she's never been into co-sleeping, but seems to like the cot as she has her own space.
I don't know of anyone who's managed to get one completely flush to the bed though. We've stuffed the (small) gap with a rolled-up blanket, and then placed a couple of little cushions on top as I'm paranoid about her getting an arm or leg stuck down the gap .

ImBarryScott · 04/09/2007 15:00

re - height of the cot. bedside cots have many more height settings than regular ones, so you should get something to match.

HullaBalloo · 04/09/2007 15:04

I have one that i would sell if you like - it was used for my ds so is in good condition. It is a pine ' Bed side bed' and we thought it was excellent.It has the side if you want to use it as a normal cot and it converts to a proper bed for when they get older.I would just need make sure i could locate`all of the fixings for it - but wouldn'sell it without them all

MrsBadger · 04/09/2007 15:05

having reassembled our basic hand-me-down non-bedside cot without instructions, I can say it'd be dead easy to drill a couple of extra holes, fit the base at the perfect height to match your bed and leave off the drop side altogether.

margosbeenplayingwithmynoonoo · 04/09/2007 15:06

How much is quite pricey? I bought one for £160 in mothercare and I'm sure you can get one from Kiddicare for cheaper.

IMO it was a good idea. I had a crib loaned to me which I was able to put beside the bed with dd1 and I felt I had much better sleep in the early days when she was lying beside me but in her own area.

I have seen something in Vertbaudet which is supposed to give your lo a bit of space while sharing your bed.

NappiesGalore · 04/09/2007 15:13

i got a bedside one from mothercare for ds3... waasnt very much moolah (well, some cots are astronomical)

i also had a bedside crib thingy for ds2, or maybe 3 in the early days? god i lose track. anyway, upshot is, that even with the cot being bedside i never really used it that much. personally, i never had the discipline to stay awake to the end of a feed (laying down in bed breastfeeding at night), LET ALONE RISK WAKING HIM BY MOVING HIM ACROSS (oops, caps on there)
i did however, use the mothercare one in its other capacity as a normal cot, once he was out of our bed.

in the end, the most used piece of baby sleeping equipment (i have other barely-used cribs etc) was just a plain old bed side guard thingy (this sort of thing) which i attached to my side of the bed so that baby could lie in the space between me and the edge of the bed, and dp wasnt scared of squishing him, and i could also extricate myself from bub and spread out a bit (im a wriggler and a spreader when it comes to sleeping) the other way without fear of disturbing him or him falling off the side. takes up less room than a bedside cot too

midnightexpress · 04/09/2007 15:47

We've got a cotbed for ds2 and with the mattress at the junior bed level, it's exactly the same height as our bed, so we have taken the side off it and pulled it up against the mattress, with a soft sheet stuffed down teh (tiny) space between the two. When I'm not in the room, I just put a pillow along the space though will prob have to review the situation once he's crawling.

I find that I can lie kind of half in the cot (iyswim!) to feed him lying down, without moving him out if I need to (though he generally ends up in our bed by the end of the night!

MrsFogi · 04/09/2007 15:55

I had a bedside crib for dd1 and it was fabulous - just leant accross and grabbed her during the night rather than ever having to get up!

Original poster

Lucyand2 · 05/09/2007 09:50

Wow, thankyou for all the suggestions!
We're getting a new ikea bed so I'm not sure what height it's going to be, we looked at it in the shop and it seemed really low.

Thankyou so much for the offer HullaBalloo, the only problem is that I'm waiting until I get my maternity grant before buying one and that will be a good few months away.

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MrsJohnCusack · 05/09/2007 10:06

yes, have the normal cot next to the bed with the side down. Was going to do what MrsB suggest but never got round to it and never needed it

(utterly irrelevant at the moment anyway as the bugger is spending every night sleeping ON me anyway)

ib · 05/09/2007 10:13

I had a beautiful, expensive, much admired bedside crib. Ds spent the first five months sleeping on me, then outgrew the crib

I second a simple bedguard.

Lazycow · 05/09/2007 13:02

We bought this and ds is still using it with the side off as a bed and he is 3 years old.

We used a combination of this and a travel cot (which was a present) from when ds was born and never used a moses basket or small crib of any sort. Overall I'd say it was a good buy.

this one

You may think £149 is too much though - which I can see it might be.

Original poster

Lucyand2 · 05/09/2007 14:36

I had thought about simply using one of those bedrail things but I kind of want a seperate sleeping space for baby as I roll around alot at night (I've even managed to wear my way through numerous mattress protectors)

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Weegle · 05/09/2007 19:58

slightly different viewpoint - I have one because of back problems so I can take the side out for DS to climb in and out himself (he's 15 months but has been doing this a few months). We have the Mothercare one and I love it. Also love the fact it's on castors so it's so easy to move around. When we have number two I'll definitely be using it in it's planned bedside form rather than faffing with a moses basket.

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