Has anyone used a cot bed as a bedside cot?

[Doormouse]

Hi, am currently co-sleeping for part of the night with my DS. He spends some time with me and some time in his Amby hammock (DP's in the spare bed!) Unfortunately he's learnt how to roll over and sit up in the hammock so we've decided to get a bedside cot instead. Looking at the bedside cots around I started to wonder if you could use a cot bed with the side off instead (we might get a few more years use out of it). Are they high enough, and has anyone else tried this? I might even have enough room to let DP back in .....

Hi Doormouse - we had exactly the same thing as you (right down to DH in spare room and the Amby hammock which dd also sat up in and then freaked out as she couldn't seem to work out which way was up as she bounced about!). Our next step with dd was exactly the cotbed by our bed scenario - it worked fine for us until dd was able to get up and climb out of our bed and was away off down the stairs at which point we invested heavily in stair gates. I found by allowing dd to stay in our room technically in our bed (but actually spending most of the time in her cotbed next to ours) she was happy, we were happy and she later transitioned to her own room (albeit on a mattress on the floor for a few months)with not too much hassle at all.

Re whether the cotbed against your bed works - the one we had worked absolutely fine - I guess it would depend on which cotbed you have to make sure that it is structurally sound with one of the sides missing - you need to check whether you can put the 'bed' strut on along one side when the rest of the thing is set up as a cot (if you see what I mean ) we then jammed the cotbed (minus side) against the wall and then our bed up against it - worked absolutely fine.

Hope this helps - best of luck!

i have put my normal cot with side missing at side of our bed it works fine

We had an ordinary cot which we took the side off (and which was structurally sound as beagle says) and shoved up against our bed. My DH had to measure and drill some new holes in the mattress base so that the cot mattress was exactly the same height as ours. He also attached some hardboard to the mattress base so it could slide under ours to help hold the two beds together, IYSWIM?

Basically it can be done and can save a lot of money as bedside cots are quite expensive for what they are IMO.

Thanks everyone - we've been looking at the bedside cots thinking 'they're nice but what extra do you get for the money?', so it's good to know that with a bit of diy and some common sense something could be done. We've not actually bought a cot or cotbed yet, so I guess it's out with the measuring tape next!

Beagle - You've also managed to answer one of my other questions, I was wondering how DS would cope when in a stationary bed instead of the Amby (It's been a brilliant bed though). I'm glad your daughter adjusted well to sleeping without the motion of a hammock. My parents have been joking that we'd have to suspend a cot from the ceiling with bungee ropes