Question about co-sleeping and the evening

[loopyloo82]

Hi everyone .
I wonder if anyone can give me some advice, or just share how you do things in the evening.

Basically, we are co-sleeping with our 5-month-old dd and are pretty happy with this - she will not sleep in a cot and can't leave her to cry. But because I don't want to leave her in bed, I have been either keeping her sleeping on me till I go to bed - but then she is relatively unsettled - or going to bed with her at 7pm - which is often lovely, but I don't want to have to do it.

We bought a bloody expensive co-sleeper cot in the hope we could safely leave her in that, but the moment I lower her into it she starts screaming- have tried many times now, but she just hates it - the mattress is pretty hard.

Co-sleepers, what do you do with your dcs in the evening?

Use it as an excuse to leave all the housework in the evening to DH while I 'get the baby reasy for bed'. I just curl up with a good book.

Although saying that I would like to have dinner with DH once in a while and watch a film or do something for me, so will be watching this thread for handy hints and tips.

we put our mattress on the floor so ds couldn't roll out and then make the bedroom baby friendly. We have two bedrooms, both with double beds in I put ds to sleep in one room and my dh sleeps in the other room and i flip between the two.

ds is now 2 and we have just put the bed back up, he hasn't fallen out so far but i put some pillows on the floor just in case

I just left DS on our bed, as close to the co-sleeper as possible (or scooted him over into the co-sleeper - I have never lowered him in)

He has fallen out a total of 3 times, all of those three were when I left him too close to the other side of the bed. He was fine incidentally, even the time when he fell on a plug socket extender thing and cut his cheek he went straight back to sleep despite me panicking and faffing around with lights, bringing him downstairs etc. The first time he rolled off he was about 7-8 months old.

We use a waterproof mattress cover which is quite rustly (do get one - you can get non rustly ones and they are much cheaper than a new mattress if they are sick/have explosive diarrhoea everywhere) and I used to put the baby monitor on really high and check him if I heard any movement at all to make sure he hadn't moved too close to the edge. Now he is older, I know he can get down from the bed safely so I just (mostly) babyproof the room and make sure there is a stairgate on the top of the stairs.

You could also put pillows on the floor and/or a pillow at the opposite side of the bed like a "barrier", but if you do this be careful he doesn't end up cuddling up to it as it could be a suffocation risk.

Gosh my dd is only 5 now but i can't for the life of me remember what we did with her in the evenings all those years ago! [Shock]

To answer your question though, we have a lovely wide double bed which was then safely next to the wall with no gap, so if I did put her in bed, I could safely lie her on the wall side of the bed and leave her with no problem. Obviously, made sure no pillows or duvet near her. She never fell out and was prefectly safe.

Good luck with co-sleeping, I'm so glad we co-slept with ours and will certainly do so again with next baby

I put mine on the bed, with a border of pillows (underneath the bedspread, so they can't get under them).

oops, she's yelling now!

I saw these recommended on another post - if you're concerned about your dd falling out while you're not there they might help and seem relatively inexpensive:

www.gobedbug.com/uk/quickshop.htm

Thanks for all the ideas everyone - I might try some of those Tweetinat

Hi there,
We are co-sleeping with my nearly 6m old. I have a bed guard and this works just fine. In the evening she is often tired so I'll frequently put her on the bed in her usual spot (my side of the bed next to the guard). I have a monitor on and I feel quite relaxed and confident that she's safe. Sometimes she'll wake later so I bring her downstairs for a feed/change/play and then we'll all go off to bed. Not a great routine I know, but it works for us and she sleeps really well during the night with only one or two feeds (BF).
I'm hoping to gradually wean her into her own cot and room soon although I think I'll miss out cosy nights together