Cribs - waste of money or last longer than moses basket?

[MaHobbit]

Erm, exactly that really, did you get one, how long did your baby use it for etc.

With HobbitJr1 he seemed to last about two weeks in the moses basket before he was too huge for it and could make it shake violently on its stand. We then went to cot in our room, which meant shifting furniture into the then spare room. Domestically, we are very compact upstairs but well extended downstairs (Ooo er missus)!

HobbitJr2 is due in April and the above system will be tricky as no 1 now occupies what was the spare room and might object to being evicted in favour of mummy and daddy's wardrobe.

Do we spend on a crib? Or will little 'un grow out of it too quickly and we need to bite the bullet and think of a more complex pickfords stylee wardrobe goes to stay in grandma's garage type solution?

TBH i think cribs are better than a moses basket but then they do only last i limited time also. I went straight for a cot and missed out both moses and crib. Just put the side down on one side of the cot and pushed right next to my side of the bed. Cant the wardrobe go downstairs if so much room?

Enough room for life in general but not quite enough for that with 2 kids and a regularly visiting elderly grandparent with mobility problems to consider.

I had a moses basket for ds1 which lasted about 6 weeks and got a crib for dd and ds2. ds2 was in it for almost 9 months but he is tiny, about the average size of a 4-5 month old.

hmm, tough one. Are you planning on breast feeding or formula? I bf and found we co-slept most of the time anyway. Even with the cot right next to us. If your worried about baby falling out check these out www.gobedbug.com/uk

How about seeing if there are any NCT sales in your area coming up - not sure if they would have cribs, but there were always loads of Moses baskets at ours. We had DS in a Samsonite pop up travel cot for the first 6 months, but wouldn't do that next time (mattress not really a mattress, more a duvet).

Otherwise LouLou's suggestion is a good one - you can also get co-sleeping cribs/cots like this (not a plug for the company, I just googled to find example!):
www.thekidswindow.co.uk/furniture/bedside_cot.htm

ooh NumptyMum i've saved that site to my favourites, im due with second LO in July so will keep that one handy!

Planning to BF - have never made up a ff in my life. BF HobbitJr1 for 14 and a bit months. So baby nearby for feeding cues is important to me.

Forgot to say - we still have moses basket but the mattress got "recycled" as a gardening kneeler so we'd need to spend a tenner on a new one. It's not that I'm tight fisted. I just want to prioritise spending on things that I believe would enrich our children's lives (travel, family time together, longer maternity leave) than spending on what the advertising people say we "need".

(Gosh I sound like a right lentil-weaver)

Loulou - I was going to bookmark your link too: we're going to build a bunk for DS and put him on the top, so this would help keep him in situ!!

oh definitely my 5 year old DD was terrible for rolling out the bed, then i found bedbug and it trained her to stay in within a month.

Never used a moses basket, but I borrowed SIL's crib and it was awful. DS was a big baby (newborn he was the size of 3 month old), that didn't help. And he kept getting his arms through the bars and getting stressed out about it. He slept in a cot from about a week old.

We did have a travel cot in the living room (also borrowed from SIL, bless her) with a bassinet and a changing unit to put on top. It was invaluable in the early weeks.

MaHobbit - actually I've just found that you can get mattresses made to size, so personally I AM going to consider using the Sampsonite pop-up travel cot again (not the bubble one, the smaller one). It worked well for us last time, only draw back being the mattress thickness - we have our bed at floor level and a raised cot wouldn't have worked in our situation.

Just in case it's useful, here's the links:
mattresses
Samsonite deluxe pop-up travel cot (we got ours from eBay)
Mumsnet reviews of travel cot

We have a crib by the bed which we love but he does put his arms through the bars and i think he will break one off.

We are a bit low rent as i have just used a big tuppaware storage box that some lovely colleagues put lots of baby stuff in as a gift for us- i lined it with a blanket and put him in there to sleep when we are in the sitting room. never got round to getting a moses basket!!WE do not put the lid on though.cribs last 6 months but if you can get a 2cnd hand one maybe- i like having him beside me.

A friend lent me a 'swinging crib' for ds which said that it can be used up to 6 months. Although he is on the small side and there was plenty of room in it, he also started waking himself up at 10 weeks or so by putting his arms through the bars. I wouldn't particularly recommend them, tbh.