Cot with a side that drops completely down / has a height adjustable base?

[AngelDog]

DS (14 weeks) is nearly too big for his carry cot and I'm going to have to transfer him to his big cot soon.

However, I'm trying to teach him how to get himself off to sleep, which involves placing him in the cot still in my arms and then gradually withdrawing. Unfortunately his big cot has a side which only drops a bit - meaning that only Mr Tickle could hold him in the cot whilst leaning over the side. The height of the matress can't be adjusted, and it needs to be a good couple of feet higher, so we can't just put another matress underneath it.

Since I don't quite have Mr Tickle arms , I think we need a cot where the side drops further down, or which has a height adjustable base so we could raise the matress to the height of the dropped cot side. Can anyone recommend one (or a method of teaching a LO to self-settle without the cot side posing a problem)?

TIA

If it's just to tide you over until he is a bit bigger and can self soothe I would go with an ikea cot like this or this. I have the second one which I use with the side left off as a sidecar cot-it's great value and does the job!

As it has two settings you can use it on the highest one until your LO self soothes, then use your big cot without too much of an outlay

Thanks for the suggestion, GetThePartyStarted. It would just be until he's a bit bigger & can self-soothe (assuming he ever gets that far!)

The cot we already have was given to us so it's not as if we've spent lots already, but cash is short and DH is not keen on buying another one. (He did suggest that I co-slept with DS instead as it would solve the cot problem - but that's alright for him to say, as he wouldn't have a wriggly DS sleeping next to him for the next I-don't-know-how-long!)

Does the side drop at all on yours? Looking at the info on the Ikea page I suspect not. How easy is it to put the side on once you've taken it off - is it a screwdriver job, or does it clip on?

I do like the idea of a cot which could be used as a bedside cot for any future DCs if necessary, though.

Thanks!

Sorry Angeldog, didn't see your reply. The cot is designed to be used as a normal cot (no drop side) on two height settings, and a cot bed on the lower setting with the side taken off, but we use it on the higher setting with the side left off. It would be a screwdriver job to switch it between the settings, but it took DP 5 min at most.

HTH

Thanks!