Co-Sleeper or Mini Crib Sidecarred??

[cinderella08]

I'm not sure what to get. DD is 13 months and we have bed shared with her since she was born. Now, she is going to be transitioning directly to a toddler bed. For the newbie, I would like to get some sort of cosleeper. I've torn between a full size Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper, or a Mini-Crib that I'll sidecar to the bed. Pros? Cons? Ideas?? Both are in the same price point.

[kasey08]

We started out with nothing but got a mini-crib as a gift at 5mos. We sidecarred it and at 18mos still love having it. DD doesn't necessarily sleep in the crib every night but it's great to have it there. She still has plenty of room to grow in it, too. I thought we might not get much use from a cosleeper and the sides aren't tall enough when they learn to stand.

[cinderella08]

That's what I was worried about - the sides on the cosleeper don't look high at all!! I'm thinking of going with the mini-crib....

[bam]

We safely rigged the crib so it's attached to our bed , i.e. child doesn't fall or get wedged in the crack. Smooth transition between our bed and his. It took some time to figure things out for nursing, but it can hold my and his weight after a test It's a pacific crib and they're solid as can be. So I can put myself party on his crib to nurse and then roll off on my bed... the opposite causes him to stay on my side of the bed and he is a bed hog which is why we stopped bed sharing until about 12 months.

I like the fact he can't go off the bed without me knowing since it's three sided and has to crawl over me to get out. We didn't get the toddler bed b/c it doesn't have a safe way to enclose the child without extra ramps and what have you.

The crib will last a few years, it's bigger than Arm's Reach (AR) and also I didn't AR b/c it and the bed were not at the same level like our crib is and made things difficult all around and woke us both to get things done. He'll probably get a full size bed when he outgrows the crib so no toddler bed in between and by then he can pick it given choices/options naturally.

That's all I can recall for now HTH