Would this be safe?

[Chamsia]

So...We have a 3 1/2 year old, who will turn 4 days before my edd for tot #2. DD goes to sleep in her own bed these days, but crawls in bed with us at some point in the night, which we are all happy with.

I am worried, though, about when baby comes...

We have a huge inhereted king-sized bed. It takes up the whole room so there's no room for a sidecar, nor a toddler mattress on the floor.

It is important to us to cosleep with the new babe, but we don't want to boot dd. And I figure that even if she happened to be sleeping through the night by the time her baby sibling is born, she might regress at that point and want to join us in bed again. And we don't want to turn her away.

But I have always heard that it's unsafe to have a newborn sleep in bed with older children.

So, what I'm thinking is that I'll acquire one of those bedrails for my side of the bed, and have newbie, with bumpers, between me and that side. DD crawls in bed and goes between me and her dad, so theoretically that should work, and I would be shielding babe from big sister.

Safe? Risky? Please share your thoughts and advice.

Thank you!

[Katie T]

Thats what we do ds was 21m when dd was born so he was/is cosleeping full time but he is inbetween dh & I & dd is on the edge w/a guard. She is now 15m this is still our setup & works great!

[Chamsia]

Thanks Katie T. Methinks I'll get a guard now to get her used to it, and work on having her climb in bed in a way that will be safe for babe.

I'd still love to hear other folks' ideas/takes/stories.

Thanks mamas!

[niengolina]

Thanks for the post! I've been wondering the same thing. DD is 16 months and cosleeps. She is quite attached to me and I'm wondering what we should do as #4 is due in December and the longest I can get her to sleep on her own (on a mattress on the floor right next to me - I lay down with her until she goes to sleep) is about 4 hours. She will not go back to sleep on her bed after she wakes up. Any suggestions for a guard?

nina

[rubidoux]

I have been thinking that, when we finally get my six yr old his new bed for his new room, if he wants to sleep in there, I will put a baby gate up in our bedroom door with the door open, so if he gets up in the middle of the night to come in we will know it before he's climbing in the bed. He's not always fully awake when he gets up in the night and I'd like the freedom to have the baby on either side of me until ds1 comes in.