Need advice on keeping crib sidecarred to bed

[lkmiscnet]

Our bed has to be in the middle of the room, so I have no way to push the crib up against the wall.

Once our LO started rolling over I put up the side rail of the crib that we had kept off. However, I also ended up co-sleeping with our DS in the same bed, so the sidecarred crib has been gathering dust. Because of the potential for the crib to separate from the bed, I also have a bed rail between the bed and crib.

I think our DS wakes up more frequently sleeping next to me because he will stir and whimper when I move or shift the covers, so I want to see how he would sleep in the crib. However, my back can't handle hoisting him in and out of his crib. He still wakes up every 2 hours to BF. I would like to remove the side of the crib again so I have easy access.

The crib is on wheels on a hard wood floor and even with the wheels removed, the crib would still move should our LO fall between the bed and crib.

Any ideas on how to keep the crib in place so it doesn't move, thereby opening the gap up where our DS could fall?

[Llyra]

We used heavy bungee cords to lash the legs of the crib to the legs of our bed. Then I pushed the crib mattress flush with the side of our mattress, and stuffed the far side (between the crib mattress and the remaining side crib rail) tightly with rolled-up towels, so that the crack remaining between our bed mattress and the crib mattress was too small for more than a finger to fit. It does make changing sheets a royal pain in the neck, but I think it's a safe arrangement.

[woodchick]

This blog has detailed instructions about how they sidecarred their crib. And photos too!

http://www.freewebs.com/sidecarcrib/

[lkmiscnet]

Thanks so much for the blog link. That was perfect!

And, thanks to Llyra for the suggestion of the bungie cords. I never thought of that. I knew there would be some great suggestions out there!

[haurelia]

We side-carred the crib when DS was about 8 months old. He had been sleeping in bed with us exclusively until that point.

We are able to push the crib/bed combo up against a wall, so our situation is a bit different than yours. We used heavy-duty plastic zip ties to lash the crib frame to the bed frame. We consulted that recommended blog link, too, when setting up our sidecar, and ended up using high density foam wrapped tightly in a crib sheet to keep the mattress flush with our big bed mattress. The rolled-up blanket kept slipping or allowing the mattress to slip. The foam is perfect and I never have to adjust anything until I change the beds.

Our son doesn't ever spend the whole night in the crib, but even if he's in bed with us, the crib gives me more space; I can be right on the edge of the big bed with arms and/or legs in the crib if I need to. We love our side car and wish we'd have done it sooner. Our room feels really full of furniture though.
Good luck!

[Llyra]

Originally Posted by haurelia

Our son doesn't ever spend the whole night in the crib, but even if he's in bed with us, the crib gives me more space; I can be right on the edge of the big bed with arms and/or legs in the crib if I need to. We love our side car and wish we'd have done it sooner. Our room feels really full of furniture though.
Good luck!

Yeah, there were some nights (that I'd rather not think too closely about, now that my kids are all bigger and weaned and sleeping alone) when it was ME that slept in the sidecar, when the babies and DH had all conspired to crowd me out of bed.

Besides even if baby doesn't like the sidecar, it's a great place to stash diapering supplies and changes of clothes and extra burp cloths, and stuff like that.