Next stage of sleeping arrangements

[mamacolleen]

I need help figuring out the next stage of co-sleeping for us.

My 11 month old DD has always slept in our room. At first it was in an arms reach co-sleeper the whole night. Then it was arms reach first part of night and curled next to mama second part of night. Then she grew out of the co-sleeper and we side-carred a crib to our bed. Now, she will nap in the side-carred crib (with pillows on the side that's touching our bed) and spend the first 2 hours or so at night in the side-carred crib until I come to bed and then she sleeps the rest of the night in our bed, curled up next to me.

I'm still happy with this arrangement (and she wakes up so much that I really can't have it any other way). However, we currently live in a one floor apartment where I feel safe leaving her in the side-carred crib with only pillows blocking her from getting onto our bed and the floor. In a month, we're moving to a 2 storey house with finished basement and I'm feeling really nervous about having her sleeping in the side-carred crib on the top floor and me watching a movie in the basement and not getting to her in time and her crawling right over the pillows and falling on the floor. She has crawled onto our bed from the crib on occasion before but I could get to her quickly once I heard it happen.

We are fairly sure we're going to get a king size bed for our new bedroom because we are pretty committed to a family bed and aren't even planning to have a separate bedroom set up for her for awhile yet. Is it best if we just put the mattress on the floor and child-proof the room? The one drawback is my DH has a bad back and, although he is mostly on board with the mattress on the floor, I don't want it to make his back worse with having to bend down so far to get in and out of bed.

The other option is to put a bed rail on the side between the side-carred crib and out bed as more of a barrier to her crawling out of it when we're not there but I'm pretty sure she'll figure out how to get around that pretty quick. I've also thought about setting up the crib with 4 sides across the room from us for her naps and the first part of the night and then bringing her into bed with us when I go to bed. But that would involve buying another crib since the hand-me-down crib we have now side-carred is missing a piece to attach the other side to it. Is it worth the expense?

What have you done when your LO gets more mobile and you're not always in the room or on the same floor when they're sleeping?

Thanks!

[YayJennie]

Around 11 months is when my son figured out how to get off the bed safely (going feet first instead of head first). Our bed frame is pretty low to the ground though, so maybe that's not an option for your daughter. The other thing I did was put the side up on the crib when my son was napping and I wasn't in the room (Here's a video I made for someone else to explain it) I don't know if that would work for your crib, but it worked well for that crib model. Now (my son is almost 15 months) we just close the bedroom door and leave him sleeping on the bed, because even if we don't get up to him before he wakes, he can safely get down from the bed without getting hurt. I hope you figure out a good option for you!

[dachshund mom]

We cosleep at night and put DD down for naps in her room on a mattress on the floor. I'm always right outside the room and she will come get me when she's up, but maybe you could babyproof the room, put up a baby gate in the doorway, and use a monitor to hear when she's up. You might have to have your DD start the night that way also. DD is in our bed alone in the beginning of the night with a monitor on, and I have to sprint to get her if she wakes up or else she'll crawl off. She knows how to get off the bed, but in a half asleep crying daze, she'll go right for the edge.

I wouldn't suggest messing with the bed rail. Give it another month and she'll climb right over that.

[jillmamma]

Originally Posted by dachshund mom

We cosleep at night and put DD down for naps in her room on a mattress on the floor. I'm always right outside the room and she will come get me when she's up, but maybe you could babyproof the room, put up a baby gate in the doorway, and use a monitor to hear when she's up. You might have to have your DD start the night that way also. DD is in our bed alone in the beginning of the night with a monitor on, and I have to sprint to get her if she wakes up or else she'll crawl off. She knows how to get off the bed, but in a half asleep crying daze, she'll go right for the edge.

I wouldn't suggest messing with the bed rail. Give it another month and she'll climb right over that.

That is pretty much what we did with my oldest who hated his crib and woke up a lot at night. (Both my girls seem to be better sleepers, in fact my 4 month old DD right now sleeps 7-8 hours at night already!!! Amazing to me!!! So there is hope that any future kids may be better sleepers too.) This worked pretty well. We nightweaned him at about 21-22 months and then he slept all night on the mattress on the floor of his room. DD (now almost 5) has never minded the crib, so she stayed in it till she started climbing out, and now still sleeps with the side off as a toddler bed. Baby DD is in the pack and play in our room or if she falls asleep nursing, stays in bed with me for awhile. Good luck!

[Beauchamp]

We opted to stop sidecarring because of the mobility issue. She knows how to get down from the bed when she's awake. Our problem was that she migrated so much in her sleep that she fell off because she had no idea she was near the edge. Unacceptable to me, because I always worried so much. Now I nurse her to sleep and lay her in the crib. Our is the Ikea Gulliver and was $99.

True, the 4-sided crib is a bit of a pain since we still do co-sleep for most of the night. But it keeps her from falling out of our bed, since it's right up against her side. I wish I had a side car for night and a full crib for naps, but obviously that is not gonna happen. I'm not buying two cribs.

I'm trying to think of a new arrangement, too, primarily because having our mattress on the floor is not working for my DH, who wants "our bed back." He is currently sleeping in the guest room. I am torn on what to do so...

[Tique]

I have a 13 month old. We have a queen bed with a crib attached to the side. My daughter learned how to crawl and walk really early, so we went through your same fears. The best strategy we found was to teach her to get off the bed backwards by herself. Our bed is pretty high, so I was really worried about her falling off. When she was learning how to do I used a baby monitor so I could hear her and I put pillows on the floor next to the bed so that if she did fall she had a bit of a buffer. Anyway, this has worked really well for us. Stacking up pillows near really worked because she crawls right over them. Also some times if we leave a favourite (safe) toy in her bed she plays with that when she wakes up.

Good luck, the other ideas all sounded good too.