Co-sleepers with mobile babies - help! Is it time for a cot? :(

[CherryChoc]

DS is 9 months and has been crawling and cruising for about a month now. He sleeps in a co-sleeper and he can stand up leaning on the sides of it. If he is leaning on the longer side I think he could fall out if he tried to lean too far - there is also the fact he can crawl onto the bed and therefore

Will finish this in a sec

Sorry, DS was trying to "help".

Anyway - he can crawl onto the bed and therefore fall off/crawl off (falling more likely) onto the floor. It's fine when he's asleep as he doesn't move much and I have the baby monitor on so as soon as I hear him shuffling about I can be up there to supervise/get him back to sleep, but last night he decided that he wanted to get up at 3am and climb around on the cot for an hour. I probably would have been able to go back to sleep if I'd known he couldn't get out and hurt himself but as it was I had to lie half awake for an hour until he accepted some milk and went back to sleep.

What do you do if this happens? Is it possible to carry on co-sleeping or do you think I should just stop being sentimental and put him in a separate cot?

bump

Hiya, seems like our little DC's are peas in a pod

Mine, tho 6 months, has started tossing and turning to the point where co-sleeping is becoming a nightmare. She's either kicking (me, never DH) in her sleep or has woken and wants attention and starts pinching my nipples . Girl knows how to get results!

We have an unconventional arrangement so I don't know if it will work for you, but you could always adapt parts of it. DD doesn't have a cot, she has a travel/sun toddler tent that we put on the floor in her room and that's where she sleeps if she isn't co with us. She can't fall out of it and we can always zip her in if she needs to be contained . I kid - there's a gate on her door so the whole room is a prison baby containment system

I have also heard of people who set up cot mattresses on the floor and make them up w/bedding so that DC's can't fall out. Do you have room to try something like that in your room so he can still be near you, but if he falls it will only be a few inches? Obv you don't DCs going free-range in the night, but it could help you worry less when you hear him shuffling.