Family bed safety advice?

[ibis]

Bed sharing was so easy when the baby just laid there!

Now that DS is rolling & creeping all over the place, bed sharing is making me nervous. Our bodies of course block either side of the bed but I worry about him falling off the end of it during the night, and I can't trust him to nap alone in there anymore, which is making naps tough because he is not used to sleeping in his crib.

Does everyone with a family bed just have the mattress on the floor? Or are there other ways to make this safer? We have a strange bedroom with the furnace vent pipe coming right up through it, at the foot of our bed (in the form of a square column) so we can't put a crib there or anything.

[Aliyahsmommy]

We recently had this same issue. I now surround my crawler with pillows and put a baby monitor in the room I will be in during naps. It works wonderfully because he will cry or coo or make some sort of gurgling noise when he wakes and then I run up and get him usually before has even rolled over to crawl anywhere.

[ein328]

Originally Posted by Aliyahsmommy

We recently had this same issue. I now surround my crawler with pillows and put a baby monitor in the room I will be in during naps. It works wonderfully because he will cry or coo or make some sort of gurgling noise when he wakes and then I run up and get him usually before has even rolled over to crawl anywhere.

Just wanted to add my own experience....this is exactly what we did, until last week. This worked well until DD started being able to move from a laying position to a crawling position to sitting very quickly and vice versa (she's 10 months). It took her falling out of the bed (after she climbed OVER stacked pillows) for me to change things. And my DH NEVER heard her make a peep over the monitor when it happened- she used to fuss when she couldn't sit up well, but now she's so good add it that she doesn't hesitate to sit up and crawl to the edge.

So although your system works well now, I just wanted to chime in and say that as your baby becomes more mobile, you might what you consider a different technique.

[Aliyahsmommy]

Originally Posted by ein328

Just wanted to add my own experience....this is exactly what we did, until last week. This worked well until DD started being able to move from a laying position to a crawling position to sitting very quickly and vice versa (she's 10 months). It took her falling out of the bed (after she climbed OVER stacked pillows) for me to change things. And my DH NEVER heard her make a peep over the monitor when it happened- she used to fuss when she couldn't sit up well, but now she's so good add it that she doesn't hesitate to sit up and crawl to the edge.

So although your system works well now, I just wanted to chime in and say that as your baby becomes more mobile, you might what you consider a different technique.

Baby actually did fall out of the bed today as daddy didn't move fast enough...3rd time thus far UGH though 1st time since baby monitor usage...daddy had hesitated about a minute or two before getting baby cause he was trying to finish his lunch and thought baby fell back asleep. My son is also very mobile and quick with sitting etc. I don't really worry that he won't make a sound though as he is a very verbal baby. I suppose it would be different however if he wasn't very verbal

[ein328]

Originally Posted by Aliyahsmommy

Baby actually did fall out of the bed today as daddy didn't move fast enough...3rd time thus far UGH though 1st time since baby monitor usage...daddy had hesitated about a minute or two before getting baby cause he was trying to finish his lunch and thought baby fell back asleep. My son is also very mobile and quick with sitting etc. I don't really worry that he won't make a sound though as he is a very verbal baby. I suppose it would be different however if he wasn't very verbal

Oh, man- that is scary. I think what freaked me out the most is that our bed is very high (like 3 ft + from floor to the top) and we have hardwood floors.

[Aliyahsmommy]

Originally Posted by ein328

Oh, man- that is scary. I think what freaked me out the most is that our bed is very high (like 3 ft + from floor to the top) and we have hardwood floors.

OH hardwood floors!! I might re-think things a little harder if that were the case!

[rightkindofme]

We just put the mattress on the floor. I'm a chicken.

[mama myssie]

I was going to post a similar question. My daughter is rolling and scooting around in her sleep. When we are in bed with her it's not a problem, however she goes to bed around 8pm and we get a few hours alone (finally). We have our mattress on the floor and a monitor on the bed. I end up running up stairs at the slightest movement. Last night she was on top of one of the "barrier" pillows. How on earth do I keep her from falling without going to bed with her? The mattress is high so bed rails don't work, I currently have the floor around the bed lined with pillows in case of a fall.

[ein328]

Originally Posted by mama myssie

I was going to post a similar question. My daughter is rolling and scooting around in her sleep. When we are in bed with her it's not a problem, however she goes to bed around 8pm and we get a few hours alone (finally). We have our mattress on the floor and a monitor on the bed. I end up running up stairs at the slightest movement. Last night she was on top of one of the "barrier" pillows. How on earth do I keep her from falling without going to bed with her? The mattress is high so bed rails don't work, I currently have the floor around the bed lined with pillows in case of a fall.

What we did was put our mattress (now on the floor) closer to the wall, with a crib mattress between the wall and our mattress. If DD is in bed and we're not there (i.e. naps and between 7-10pm or so), she sleeps on "her" matress. When we go in to bed, we move her to our mattress, as she still nurses frequently at night. The crib mattress is so little that she can easily slide onto the floor without getting hurt, and because our bed is so low now, we can reach each other easily.

We also cheated and put a baby gate at the end of her mattress- between our mattress and the wall. Now we have a glorified "baby cave," she can still see and touch us, but she can't really escape....until she learns to pull herself up onto our bed, anyway.

I know it seems like a lot to go through, but after our DD took that fall, I decided I just wasn't willing to risk it happening again (then again, our bed was super high, and we have hardwood flooring).

[blessedwithboys]

I always did naps in the sling or on the living room floor so I could keep an eye on the LO. That was just until I could teach them how to climb down safely from the bed; at that point naps moved to the bedroom.