First time mama needs info on co-sleeping...

[rachelsnyder]

My DD is 3 mths old and has been sleeping with us in our king sized bed since the beginning...This may be a silly question but what do we do once she starts to roll...crawl...etc.  For now she just sleeps beside me and we have nothing at the side of our bed because she doesn't move much, but I can see those days are numbered.  I was looking at the Humanity Family Bed thing, as well as the Snug Tuck Pillow (which seems like a cheaper option), but was curious as to what others do and how that changes as she gets more mobile.  Thanks in advance!

[Calliope84]

I am also interested in this. I may just put our mattress on the floor though so if she rolls off it is only a few inches. She shows no interest in sleeping even an inch away from me, though, so if I am away from the edge, she is too.

[asraidevin]

When my kids are sleeping they don't move much. My son is a wiggly baby when awake but no issues when he's sleeping. i wake up the instant he moves, so he doesn't have a chance to try to get out of bed without me. Also when you wake up, your first instinct is not to move. Baby will not wake up ready to crawl out of bed before you notice.

[onelovelivity]

We co-sleep with our 2yo and 1 yo with two mattresses on the floor side by side. This gives us all enough room for comfort and safety. I have a suitcase by the side of the bed where my 1 yo sleeps so he doesn't roll out (although he has done once....found him fast asleep on the floor poor babes!) I would put him on the side next to the wall but our windows are above and I always feel a slight draft and since he won't sleep with covers it's best for him on the other side. I like the low level bed for the ease and safety issue...my 2 yo slept in her Grandma's bed, fell out in the night and fractured her tibia...in a cast for 3 weeks...no lasting damage but that was a painful 3 weeks for all of us.

[lostchick]

Mattress on the floor works for us. My baby is very wiggly and does wake up and immediately start crawling! I found this out the hard way! He was fine, but I feel more at ease with the mattress on the floor. Plus, I think it is kind of fun and my 9 year old and her friends think it is so cool. Lol! Good luck

[georgia]

We took the bed off its frame and placed the bed in the corner so there were only two edges to possibly roll off of---the foot and the far edge. I took the space closest to the wall and babies slept in the middle between me and my partner who was on the "outside" edge. Worked great through three co-sleeping children. Of course, my bed is still on the floor even though no one's in danger of rolling off anymore! 

With my first, I was extra-cautious and laid pillows on the floor around the outside edge (those body-type pillows work great).

[courtneyk]

We had a King and bought a deep mattress guardrail for the side my son slept on. I did not let him sleep between us because I read that sleeping fathers don't have that same instinctual awareness of their babies that mothers do. He always gravitated toward me in the bed--away from the edge. That could have been due to my weight on the mattress or because he was a night nurser or for warmth. We never had any safety issues.  

[katybird]

we just put bed bars on both sides, and rolled up the blanket at the bottom of the bed. then also put the monitor on the bed so you hear all movements. I also had a friend advise me to put a jingly toy on the bed, so you would hear the baby wake up and play with it.

[Birkygirl]

We used the bed bars that you put on a toddlers bed. We also tried to keep them in the middle as much as possible! Worked fine for many years!

[amandacowgill]

My DD is 22 months and has been in our bed since birth- besides the few times we need us time and now recently when we try to get her to sleep in her crib. I actually took my sons bed rail off his bed- since he informed me he was too old for it. It looks a little silly- like our bed is actually a kids bed. But I dont feel comfortable not having anything there. Typically Marley sleeps on the edge (with the bed rail so she cant fall off) then I am in the middle and hubby on the other side. Now that she is bigger sometimes she sleeps between us, but when she was small hubby felt more comfortable having her on my side. You can get them new for not too much.

[nerdymom]

We ended up with the mattress on the floor, before that we had the snugtuck pillow. But our bed was so high we had to climb in it. We're about to get a king size bed with a low frame, and we'll use the snug tuck pillow again. When DS started to move about in his sleep I started placing pillows around the other side of him for naps. He learned to slide out of bed safely around the same time he learned to crawl and after that I didn't worry too much.

As for the concern about dad's not being as aware of the baby, that is so true. But I found that I was very aware of DS in our bed, even while sleeping, and when we switched sides to nurse (I have small breasts and cannot nurse both breasts while laying on my side) and DS was in the middle I would place my arm around him. More than one time my poor DH said I almost shoved him out of bed when he got too close (we have a full size mattress). And I'd not remember a thing in the morning.

[Jodibug]

We have our bed still in the frame but not raised up so it is on the floor.  We still have our box spring under the mattress so it's not super low to the ground.  We took the mattress from the crib that has never been used and put it beside our bed.  Originally we kept the bed raised and put a guardrail on my side, but DS rolled off one night and that scared the mess out of us so since then we've lowered the bed.  DS was so wiggly that he found his way around the guardrail because it was not the entire length of the side of the bed.

[starshine1001]

King mattress only (no boxsprings) on the floor is how we roll!  :)  We have large pillows on the bed when it's made, so at night we just put them on the floor surrounding the sides of the bed.  That way if baby goes off the side, it's a short, cushy fall.  And getting out of bed helps tone your legs and butt!  LOL

[goldenwillow]

DS is 18 months now and has always slept with us.  We have a king size futon that DH made our frame about a foot off the floor, like this one in the first pic.. we had ours made by this company.    http://www.soaringheart.com/category.cfm?topCategory=naturalbeds

I wanna say we took the risers off around 3 months.  We have pillows surrounding the bed/walls... DS likes to roll around when waking up and this prevents his head from hitting the wall!

[cocoanib]

I would like to do the matttress floor bit, but our home is small and I use under the bed for storage :)

So, we pushed the bed into the corner, so one side and the foot of it are against the wall. I sleep on the outside, so she can't get up or roll off in the night.

She rolled off one night before we did this and now I'm super careful!

When we're not sleep with her or for naps, she sleeps in a pack and play.

[ibis]

I was not keen on dismantling our king sized bed, so we made do... side-carred the crib and always had an adult on the other side. We just haven't left him alone in the bed, which admittedly is a bit limiting. Now he's 12 months old and I recently taught him to climb down legs-first!

[katelove]

We have First Years bedrails on the bed and we recently moved the mattress to the floor. We've left the bedrails on because it means we can sleep closer to the edges of the bed but we haven't done anything to stop her getting off the bed around the rails. It's only about 10cm onto carpet. She sleeps there by herself for naps.