Bedside cot question

[confusedfirsttimemum]

DD is 12 weeks and has truly outgrown her crib, so the time has come to move her into a cot. It seems so grown up .

I have been looking at bedside cots, and although we don't really co-sleep now, I do like the idea of having her close by. She is big, and it's quite a strain on my back lifting her in and out of her crib in the night. Also, if she is unsettled, laying an arm on her often calms her back down, and this would let me do that without moving her (at the moment I reach through the bars of the crib).

My question is what happens with bedding in the adult bed. DD will soon be on the move (she already rolls onto her side) and obviously I don't want her harmed by our duvet. If I went for a bedside cot, would we need to do without covers? When we have co-slept, we have followed the guidelines and DD has been up at shoulder height, with the covers down by our legs. However, that has been in summer and, also, we've known that once we put her down she can't move far (both because she hasn't been able to and because she's been snuggled into me). I'm not sure how viable that is in the depths of winter and when we don't quite know where she'll end up.

Would I be better off going for a drop side cot and leaving it semi-dropped until DD can get upright on her own (i.e. so that there is still a small barrier to her rolling into our bed). Is that safe?

To the extent it's relevant, she's a good sleeper and I'm only up once or twice in the night usually, so I don't need to be able to feed/doze all night.

Any experiences or advice welcome. I really didn't realise children's furniture was so complicated!

We have one and I kept the duvet on our bed and put dd in a sleeping bag. When she comes close to me I put the duvet round me or her on top of the duvet

I co-sleep with my baby (did with my other dd too), agree with Wonderstuff, just pull the duvet down when she gets in the bed with you. (probably not great if you share bed with your partner too though). Alternatively if your partner is in bed too - what about two single duvets then your baby can go in the middle between the duvets.

Hi confusedfirsttimemum. There are so many decision to make, aren't they? With DS (second baby) we decided to have a bed-side cot. It's just a normal one with the side taken off and a towel rolled up between it and our mattress. It's been great, especially for night feeds.

We had DS in a sleeping bag, never under our duvet. To be honest, as he had his own space he never came near our duvet anyway. It was very different to when DD used to lie between us - much less hassle. Rolling was never a concern (it helped that he was a late roller) as he was asleep most of the time and isn't a massive wriggler. While I was in bed next to him that provided a natural barrier too. I also became good at scooping him back into his cot after a feed.

I'd say not to worry about a barrier, give it a go without, then just see how you go and change the arrangement if necessary. When DS was about 7 months old we put him in a cot at the end of our bed, in theory to help him feed less at night. I hated it and we put it all back really quickly. It's just so nice not having to get out of bed for feeds.

Good luck with it all.

I always have had DS on the side of the bed not the middle for feeds, as we have all that extra space due to the bedside cot (which is level with our bed) and the occasional presence of DD in the middle.

This is all really helpful. Thanks .

Not too worried about DH, as he's a very warm person and normally kicks his side of the covers off himself anyway. I think that, if I wear a long sleeved top when the weather's especially cold, it sounds like I can make it all work.

Ooooh, shopping. Sad really. I used to have a life where I bought clothes for me as a shopping treat. Now I buy slings and cots!