Safe co-sleeping when snuggle nest is too small

[carmen358]

DD is 11 weeks old and is rapidly out growing the snuggle nest she sleeps in between DP and I. We have a king sized bed from Ikea and the snuggle nest has been great for us as we were a bit nervous about rolling over on her. Sometimes she sleeps on the bed beside me (still between DP and I) and that works too. She sleeps really well! However, as she is getting more active and is wiggling around more and when she starts rolling over, I'm getting nervous about her sleeping in between us just on the mattress as DP sleeps with her back to us a lot and also has the blankets up around her shoulders. I currently sleep facing DD with a separate blanket just around my waist. We are talking about moving her to my side of the bed but with our style of bedframe we can't find anything safe to keep DD from rolling out of bed. Most of the rails or side car solutions won't work with our frame (MALM frame - see previous link). Moving our mattress onto the floor isn't really an option. Any suggestions?? We love co-sleeping and want to continue!

[sapphire_chan]

With a king sized bed, she'll be so far from the edge that it should be fine. Put some pillows on the floor on that side until you can relax and carry on.

Alternatively, you could push the bed up against the wall.

[Alisse]

Can you move the bed so that one side is against the wall?

By the time your daughter is rolling she may be much bigger which might make it less worrisome for her to be between the both of you.

[carmen358]

Unfortunately, our room is quite small and having the side against the wall won't work

Has anyone tried the Tres Trio or something like it? Is it worth the money? Or could I make something similar?

[Sariha]

co-sleeping pad

The Humanity Sleeper is great. Saves room space and also no bed roll off worries. see here

[esteg0]

We have a Humanity Bed and LOVE it!!! I highly recommend one!

[HungryCaterpillar]

Originally Posted by carmen358

DD is 11 weeks old and is rapidly out growing the snuggle nest she sleeps in between DP and I.

That sounds odd to me - my 5.5 month old chubster (almost 20 pounds, 99th %ile for height) only just outgrew her Snugglenest last week! We had been using the incline and took that out a while back so she wouldn't slide out the bottom, and I took the sleep positioner out as well. I really miss that heartbeat button, it helped settle her better than any other white noise we've found!

Was I using it for too long?

[bender]

It looks like you could use a bed rail to keep the baby from rolling off the edge. I've also heard someone say a pool noodle tucked under the mattress can work as well.

We use separate blankets as well, which helps eliminate some hazards.

[dachshund mom]

A side car crib might work. We have a bed frame with rails and I couldn't get the crib as close as it needed to be. I pulled the crib mattress against our mattress and put a large pool noodle and some rolled quilts between the crib mattress and the back of the crib. We have a king too, so she rarely sleeps in the crib, but it keeps us from falling off.

[Phantaja]

Originally Posted by carmen358

Unfortunately, our room is quite small and having the side against the wall won't work

Has anyone tried the Tres Trio or something like it? Is it worth the money? Or could I make something similar?

Is the head of the bed against a wall? Since a king sized bed is almost square, could you guys just sleep in the other direction (across rather than up and down)?

[mamadelbosque]

I'd try side-carring a crib, and pushing the crib mattress right up against your bed, ontop of the outside edge of the bedframe. Then, goto Jo-anne fabrics (or similar) and buy a couple pieces of foam to fill in the gap between the end of the crib and the crib mattress. Or that humanity thing looks like it'd be fine. And really... almost all babies fall of the bed at some point, IME - whether at home or while traveling, its just bound to happen. 99% of the time, their peachy fine!

[KermitII63]

I also have a humanity family bed to keep ds from rolling and I LOVE it. When I am travelling, I keep DS in the middle, make the bed so that the blankets are secured low enough down so they can't cover DS, and sleep in long sleeves so I don't get cold. I am not worried about rolling because I sleep on my side with the arm closest to DS outstretched. That way if DH accidentally moves, he hits my arm first and I wake up. And with my arm out like that, it's actually impossible for me to roll. I am not really worried about it anyway, because when you think about it, mamas have been safely sleeping with babies for thousands of years, way before things like snuggle nests and humanity family beds existed ;o) but it's best to feel safe of course, so I'd recommend experimenting a bit to see what works. There's something called a bed bug that's a more affordable option to consider. I just like the HFB because when DS is in the middle, it's a great back pillow ;o) (I switch sides during the night because it's easier for nursing). Hope that helps--good luck!

[chipper26]

Originally Posted by Alisse

Can you move the bed so that one side is against the wall?

By the time your daughter is rolling she may be much bigger which might make it less worrisome for her to be between the both of you.

This is what we did and she slept between me and the wall most of the time. It worked well and we actually still have it set up that way (she's now 20 months) but she sleeps in the middle more b/c I'm not worried about dh rolling on her.

[carmen358]

Originally Posted by HungryCaterpillar

That sounds odd to me - my 5.5 month old chubster (almost 20 pounds, 99th %ile for height) only just outgrew her Snugglenest last week! We had been using the incline and took that out a while back so she wouldn't slide out the bottom, and I took the sleep positioner out as well. I really miss that heartbeat button, it helped settle her better than any other white noise we've found!

Was I using it for too long?

Sorry, we are using the "close and secure sleeper" - I just always refer to it as the snuggle nest. There is a bottom part that makes it shorter than the "real" snuggle nest so she has already outgrown it.

I ended up rolling up a heavy wool blanket into a "log" and placing it under the sheet between DP and the baby and I to create a similar thing as the humanity bed thing - it is working well so far

[Jessie Mae]

We too used the snuggle nest in the beginning and it worked great. Then we moved to the Humanity Bed pillow and also LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I highly recommend!

[silentgurl]

You can use your computer to generate white noise without buying a program or writing a single line of code. Numerous Internet sites will stream white noise to your desktop.

[claddaghmom]

I would put pillows down on the floor. If you have some sort of frame or sides that stick out, a pool noodle sliced longways can go on each edge.

[To-Fu]

I have the EXACT same bed from IKEA. Go Malm! We use this for a "rail:"

http://www.snugtuckpillow.com/

Thinking about getting another! We love it.