Should I buy my 7 month old DD a double bed?

[Lobyd]

Okay, so hopefully it won't come to that! But my DD just won't nap in her cot. She wriggles, gets stuck in the bars, cries, and just can't get comfy. But as soon as you put her on our bed she relaxes and settles down, arms stretched wide.

I thought this might have to do with her preferring our room, but having tried to put her down on MILs bed today she napped easily there too.

It seems to me this is because she has a lot more room to wriggle and get comfy, rather than getting squashed in her cot.

What can I do? I don't want to continue naps on our bed as she is getting more and more mobile and I fear a plunge to the floor is inevitable...should I carry on and just buy rails?

I should say this self settling comes after months of bfing to sleep. At night she will sleep in her cot but I normally put her to bed asleep after feeding - she can just about self settle there if it's dark and she's really tired...sometimes.

Any thoughts?

How about getting her a single bed mattress, putting it on the floor for her? You will want to get her a single mattress when she eventually goes into a normal bed anyway - why not just get it now? It won't be so far to fall and you could even pad the floor next to the mattress with blankets etc if you think that the drop is still too far. But at least she wouldn't be at any serious risk from falling out.

Thanks BertieBotts for your advice.

Do you think this is a goer? I had been considering this but thought that when she is crawling/walking it might be too easy for her to get up and get into mischief!

Has anyone tried this?

Well DS is 18 months and has always slept in a 3-sided cot attached to my bed, and I have always stayed with him until he fell asleep so I knew he was not making mischief in the room. However occasionally when he wakes, he will get out of bed and walk around - I have a monitor so I hear him, and there is a stairgate at the top of the stairs and there is nothing he could hurt himself on or wreck in the whole upstairs (you could do stairgate on bedroom door if this is not practical)

Most of the time though when he wakes up I just feed/cuddle/lie with him back to sleep, and the period of time he stays asleep for is increasing, so I am thinking of moving him into his own room - will probably go for the mattress on the floor thing at first since he is still little, though I think he might cope with a bed.

I think that I just don't think self-settling is the be-all and end-all! On a good night he will feed to sleep in 10 minutes so it's not really a problem.

Does she sleep in her cot at night? Is the problem just nap time?

I would say regardless, definitely don't get her a bed, persevere with the cot. You will have a hell of a time when she is mobile trying to contain her if there aren't bars keeping her in!

That was my worry NorthEastNorah!

Basically what happens at night is - 7pm , bottle feed her to sleep ( have now switched to formula) She wakes up 45 minutes later and yells, unless she is really sleepy she won't resettle in her cot( although have just come downstairs from a successful occasion!)

When she wakes I'm guessing sometimes she must resettle herself, I used to BF her but have stopped that now and she is happy with a cuddle...I give her her last bottle at 11ish, whenever she wakes.

I'm fairly happy with how nights go I guess, although they're not perfect with at least one wakeup ( she has slept from 11-630 twice!)

It's just napping - she's never been good at it, there have been endless hours pushing her in her pram, and now I'e discovered she can happily settle herself on our bed I'm thrilled, but puzzled about why this won't translate to her cot...

I guess I have 2 options, try and get her used to her cot, or adapt our bed so it's good for napping... or option 3 being buy her her own bed!

What about a cotbed? I hadn't realised the difference in size between cot and cotbed until coming to visit my parents this weekend. We have a cotbed and DD looks tiny in it. They have a cot and she can pretty much touch both sides at once.

That is true - you could take her to Mothercare and quickly plonk her in one to check the size.

Spread a blanket out on the floor and let her nap on that.

Ds never had a cot. He slept in our bed til 14mths then we put him straight in his own bed. Yes, he occasionally gets up and comes to me but he often sleeps straight through (only sleeps 10hrs though... that's another story ). Only just getting that with dd (who slept cot/our bed/then into her bed at 15mths)!!

I sometimes stay til he is asleep (with the light, I am mostly sleeping next to him to get him off at the moment) but then I come downstairs. He also often falls asleep while I potter around tidying upstairs.

It works for us because we always respond and are happy not to go down the 'leave them in their cot crying cos they have to learn' route. I'll be honest, there have been times when that has frustrated me, but both kids have more-or-less learnt to stay in bed when I tell them! And you have to deal with it at some point anyway (assuming you aren't going to keep them in a cot forever).

our dd2 sleeps in a double bed.

we turf her out when we have visitors but the rest of the time it enables us to read stories more comfortably

also works well when she's ill and needs a bit more attention at night.