Outgrown co-sleeper, but not ready for crib!

[Bathtub Mary]

DS is 5 1/2 months old. He's been sleeping happily in a combo of co-sleeper and our bed - when he has trouble sleeping we bring him in bed with us, but that doesn't work full-time because he is so incredibly thrashy. He started crawling last week, so we realized we needed to rethink our sleeping arrangements. And then yesterday he started pulling himself to standing! In his co-sleeper no less! We figured, OK, he'll just go in bed with us from now on, it would be safer. But last night was a nightmare. I didn't get a wink of sleep because he flailed so much. Mama doesn't function well with no sleep, so we can't do that every night...but neither of us are ready to put him in the crib, which is in another room. We like sleeping with the little guy, and he likes it too, but we all do need to sleep. So here are the options that I can see:

1. Convert the co-sleeper to a pack n' play, and put him in that to sleep. DH favors this one, but it seems unsafe to me somehow.

2. Get accustomed to not sleeping and put him in bed with us.

3. Put him in the crib.

Thoughts? I'm sure other mamas have been through similar stuff...help!

[mamaforever]

Hi!

Wow, your DS is crawling and pulling up at such a young age!  I personally feel that is too young to put him in a whole separate room.  But maybe having the crib or pack n play in your room close to your bed is an option.  Another option is to set up the crib in a sidecar arrangement (where the crib is basically "attached" to your bed, with 1 side open),  Here is a link of how one family set that up:

http://www.freewebs.com/sidecarcrib/.  My DS is 26 months and now we sleep on a queen mattress on the floor.  So I'm not sure if that's an option for you if you want to keep him in the bed with you, or if it would even help.  But then at least if he falls out of bed, it wouldn't be too far to the ground. :)

I hope this helps!

[Yaliina]

I second that.  Bring the crib into your room (or a pack-n-play) in place of the co-sleeper.  Good luck!!

[LionessMom]

i second the side car. it is what we do.

[Snapdragon]

I third the sidecarring!! We started ds out in the cosleeper and he outgrew it in a few months! We then transitioned to the sidecarred crib and I couldn't imagine a better arrangement! Ds is right there next to me, but dh and Istill get the whole bed to ourselves. Ds doesn't have to feel alone or isolated as he is right with us- but we also don't feel overcrowded.

[karen1968]

I was about to start a thread very similar to this, so I'm going to glom onto this one...our 4mo has just about out grown the borrowed co-sleeper. We don't have a crib, and if we did, there is no room for it in our bedroom.  She slept in between us for a while, but DH says he doesn't sleep well when she's there, partly for fear of rolling onto her (a.k.a being hyper aware always and unable to sleep deep) and also because she is persistently gassy and moves and groans a lot in her sleep. So I feel like I have a couple of options:

(1) crib mattress on the floor next to (or near) the big bed
(2) find a guard rail that works with a king bed (I never did find one when co-sleeping with DS) and have her on the outside of the bed next to me.

(3) buy a crib and put it in another room

#3 isn't really an option for us!  But I'm wondering what people think about having such a young baby on a floor mattress alone. I know Montessori touches on this a bit, but I haven't researched it all I could.

[ssh]

We got a twin bed mattress set and put it next to our queen bed then put both on the floor. We wedged it together by having a dresser right next to the bed on the outside.  It was just a very big bed. Having a second mattress means the people on the big mattress can't feel all the motion of one person moving around on the smaller one. We had DD next to the wall, then me, then DH. My DH always woke up more when DD moved than I did. When DD was on the inside DH slept on the twin, but didn't feel all her movement anymore. Side-caring a crib is a good idea too. It all depends on how long you plan on co-sleeping.

[motherhendoula]

We also just moved our 6 mo old DS out the co-sleeper - we debated getting a crib - but we happened to have a futon that was extra narrow (36") and extra long (the length of our queen sized bed)    So we moved the futon next to my side of the bed - so far its been a week and its pretty good - he slept better in the co-sleeper, AND i didnt have to dive to get in and out of my side of teh bed!  LOL  but i like having a place for him - im concerned about toddler years and naptime - but i guess i will cross that bridge when i come to it!

[Ambystoma]

Side carring might be a good option for you. But, DS is very thrashy and tosses and turns (almost as bad as I did before he was born!) and will still end up with his feet in my face or something even when starting out in the crib. No matter what, he's always perpendicular to me. So, if he will sleep by himself, I would try a crib near the bed or pack-n-play to start. If DS didn't have to be right up on me, I would do this. Next baby, I'm doing the cosleeper and then going from there.