Anyone have an arm's reach mini co-sleeper?

[SamiPolizzi]

I'm wondering how long a mini co-sleeper would work before the baby outgrows it. We have very little space, and while I'd like to just have baby in bed with me, I think we're going to need some extra space for when DS gets in bed with us. I just don't want to spend the money if it will be outgrown really quickly. 

[colsxjack]

We have the regular sized one and it lasted us about 5 months.

Maybe you can get one second hand? They are a lot of money.

We do use it now for our twins. But not as a co-sleeper. We use it as a little bed, resting place, change table, etc in the living room.

With our DD, and now with the twins boys, we side car a crib to our bed. That lasted until she was 2 1/2

[MrsGregory]

We have the Arm's Reach miniature, and she's still in it at 16 months.  She's a bit on the smaller side, but she's not teensy (She's happily and solidly in most 12months clothing, for example.), and we have her using it until/unless she wakes and wants to join us in bed.  We have dropped it down into the bottom position and have the rails all the way up.  She could climb out if the sides were firm, but they're not.  Mwahahahaha.  She's TRAPPED! 
 

[presentmoment]

We have the mini, and moved our daughter out of it at 5 months -- she'd started wanting to roll onto her side, and there just isn't much rolling space in that thing. She's also above the 99th percentile for height and weight, and was starting to wear 12 month clothing at 5 months, fyi. 

That said, I left the mini sidecarred to our bed, tucked a pillow into it to make it level with our mattress, and now she starts the night in her crib and comes into our bed later. She sleeps between me and the mini cosleeper, and having it there means (a) she can't roll out of bed and (b) we have a bit more wiggle room, since she sleeps right up at the edge of our mattress with her arm splayed out across the pillow in the cosleeper, if you can picture that. (I know people worry about pillows with cosleeping, but she only ever rolls toward me in bed, so I've decided I'm fine with it, especially now that she's a hardy 8-month-old.)

Just figured I'd let you know about the mini's alternate use as a bed-extender, in case that would help in your situation too. I think it buys us at least an extra 6-8 inches of sleeping space for my husband and me, since our little one prefers the classic arms-out-to-a-T baby spreadeagle pose. With one arm in the cosleeper and the other on me, she doesn't take up nearly as much bed space :)

[Zirconia]

We have the mini, and we used it about 5 1/2 months.  By that time, she wasn't swaddled any more, and her arms hit the sides when she flung them out in her sleep.

With both the regular and mini cosleepers, as soon as they can roll and start to sit up, you aren't supposed to use it as a "cosleeper" any more, because the edge railings are too low - they'll fall out.  So, to keep using it past 5 months or so, you have to drop the bottom and use it like a pack-n-play.  I bet most babies outgrow the cosleeper arrangement because of developmental reasons, not size reasons, so the size is less of an issue unless your baby is really huge (my DD was 50th percentile at that time).

So, you really need to decide how you want to use it, whether you care about the pack-n-play feature.  If you just want the cosleeper feature and nothing else, I'd buy whatever shows up in good condition at your local consignment shop.  :)  For what it's worth, our Arm's Reach is a pain in the butt to collapse and set up - if you are thinking ahead to an easy travel solution, a regular pack-n-play will be soooooooo much easier.

[SamiPolizzi]

Thanks, ladies. :)

It sounds like it will work just fine for us. We're really just looking for a temporary solution. We'll be moving when the baby is 4 months old, so I think if it works until he's about 5 months we'll be in a better position to come up with a different solution. Ideally, I'd like to just get a bigger bed for DS so one of can get in bed with him and one of us can stay in our bed with the baby.