Cosleeping with a 5 year old and a newborn, any tips?

[smeep]

I will be living with my parents when I have this baby. Due to room constraints, we will HAVE to cosleep (which I have no issue with, nor does DS; we coslept exclusively for the first 2 years and he still ends up in bed with someone on a very regular basis). I will for sure at least have a Queen size bed, though I'm hoping to score a King off of Craigslist between now and then. Sooo...any tips? We will not have a crib, so sidecar is out. I will have a pack n play, but I'm sure it will only get used for the occasional naps (DS had a crib as a sidecar and it ended up becoming a glorified laundry basket after the first couple weeks, so I won't even kid myself this time, haha). 

So.....tips? Should I sleep in the middle and DS on the outside and baby on the inside by the wall? DS moves around a LOT in his sleep and it's not uncommon for him to fall off the bed (the other night we were sleeping on a twin bed and TWICE he was sleeping with just his upper body on the bed and his lower half was off the side of the bed, he was practically standing up sleeping!). I COULD see if DS's old toddler bed still has all the parts and try to get it together, but that will make the space SO much more cramped. Just his stuff alone takes up a ridiculous amount of space in the room. So, yeah, just any tips would be great. :) 

[To-Fu]

I co-sleep with my partner, my three-year-old, and my six-month-old in a king-size bed.  We don't have it pushed up against the wall; rather, it's in the middle of the wall with foam bumpers on either edge. 

I've read some studies about the dangers of co-sleeping with an infant on a side of the bed that's pushed up against the wall.  If you need to push the bed up into a corner for space constraints (and it sounds like you might), I'd put the five-year-old on that side.  Keep yourself between the two kids at all times. 

These are the foam bumpers we have in our bed to keep the baby and toddler from rolling off the sides:

http://gobedbug.com/

They're inexpensive and great!  If you can't swing those financially, pillows could work if you rolled them up and put them under the fitted sheet, although they do take up more room and are higher maintenance since you constantly have to adjust them. 

If you can get a king, go for it!  We've been so much more comfortable with ours.  The three-year-old takes up more room than any of us, so we need all the space we can get. ;)