Co-sleeping with a mobile babe--how do you do it?

[kismetbaby]

My almost 8 month old is getting seriously mobile. Not quite crawling yet, but rolling and scooting all over the place. Yesterday he fell out of bed for the first time (from a futon luckily so not far off the ground) and he did this in his sleep! Now I'm afraid to leave him in bed for naps. Normally he sleeps in our bed which isn't a futon (we were at MILs house when the fall occurred) so farther off the ground and I worry about him falling off .

I hadn't thought this far in advance about co-sleeping. I love co-sleeping, my DH tolerates it. So he thinks this is a sign to get our LO into his own bed. But we don't have a crib and weren't really planning to get one. Hmmmm. What are our options here? He always falls asleep BFing in bed and I just slip away, but obviously this would be made much more difficult if I had to transfer him to another bed. He also still nurses 3+ times a night, so I don't want to have to get out of bed to nurse him every time. My DH thinks he won't need to nurse if he isn't right next to me, but I'm pretty sure that he'll wake and want nursies no matter where he is!

How have you made co-sleeping work at this stage? Or how did you transition from co-sleeping to sleeping separately?

[Mama_of_1]

How about just getting a good baby monitor? Ours is very sensitive and picks up when she starts breathing "huffy." I take that as my cue and hightail it into the bedroom to check on her. We also put up a siderail on one side of the bed and box her in with a pillow on the other side so it would take DD a little bit to get to the edge of the bed.

[Chamomile Girl]

We had to take our bed off of the frame and put it on the floor...and we also use bedrails. So far he has only fallen off once. He did it on purpose though, and not in his sleep.

[cristeen]

My DH is the same way.

A and I sleep on a futon which is pushed into a corner. He gets the wall side, and I get the edge. SOme days (like this morning) it gets tough - he pinned me against the edge of the bed and I couldn't move. I had to wait until DH got up for work to come help me extricate myself without him falling off the bed... I digress.

For naps, I either put him against the wall with pillows between him and the edge (he can crawl over them once he wakes up, but not roll over them in his sleep), or I put him in the corner of the sectional couch with pillows on either side - so the only place he can crawl is down - onto the pillow I put there to cushion his fall. Since he usually announces when he wakes up, I don't have to really worry about him crawling around the pillows.

As for the own bed thing - I've thought about (and gotten a quote for) a custom made futon to fit in the nook in the nursery. It's a good size for a toddler, and could go right onto the floor, so I wouldn't really have to worry about him falling off. But I'd still have to deal with getting up and down off the floor. Since he doesn't transfer, I'd have to put him down awake and get down there with him to feed him to sleep. And for now, it's just easier to put him on the couch or the futon for that. We'll probably revisit that when he either gets too tall to sleep safely on the couch or starts walking, whichever comes first.

Since N isn't really crawling yet, pillows on either side should work fine, or a railing on one side and pillows on the other, or whatever combo works for you. Once he's crawling, then you revisit the subject. And really, unless you're outside while he's napping, I would think your place is small enough to not really need a monitor. We only have one for when he falls asleep in the car and I park it in the garage and come into the house (like now).

[kismetbaby]

Thanks mamas.

Cristeen, I think you're right. . .our place is so small that a monitor is just silly. I mean I can go peak in on him almost as fast as I can turn my head to glance at a moniter! I guess I worry most about the sleep rolling at this point, but pillow bolsters may do nicely for that.
Really, I think my "issues" come down to the (minor) conflict between DH and I about co-sleeping. He is really keen to get our LO into his own bed ASAP. I like co-sleeping, plus I just can't imagine how DS being in another bed would be better since it would mean my getting up to go nurse him someplace else any number of times a night. And I really don't want to night-wean yet. He's so active and busy during the day, he really needs those night nursies (I believe). And besides its my only good snuggle time anymore!
We won't get a crib if we can help it, but DH has visions of getting DS a small mattress on the floor. I think that putting our mattress on the floor would be easier.

This is probably another thread. . .but how do you resolve the conflict with DH about co-sleeping?

[lookatreestar]

i dont have the dh issue since my dh is from a country where co sleeping is the norm. but we just have our mattress on the floor. it is awesome and no worries about the baby falling! my dd learned to back off the bed around 9 months, ds around 10 months. as for naps even on our bed on the floor she would wake up and just sit there on the bed calling for me. but ds, no way, as soon as he is awake he is off the bed and into something.

[CherryBombMama]

my ds rolls all over during his naps! we side car his crib but he sleeps in the middle our bed for naps, and i put one long body pillow on one side of him, and another pillow on the other side. its worked pretty good so far.

and when we started co sleeping, i just "upped" the cuteness factor of him being next to Daddy ... it was always "look how much he loves snuggling with you..." "aww, he loves sleeping next to his dada" "doesnt it seem like he has bonded more with you?" and so on ... eventually my dh went from liking the baby in our bed once in a while, to completely surprising me by saying he couldnt wait for baby #2 to sleep with him, me AND our first baby. thats a big step IMO!

[zamia7]

my 8 month old has a fullsize mattress on the floor next to our bed. it works AWESOME. I rolled up a quilt nice and tight for a bolster for any sleep rolling, he can really get over it. I put pillows on the floor just in case. this way, i can stay down there with him or go back to bed with dh, depending on his needs for that night. (frequent waker upper). and i can nurse him to sleep and leave him.