What do you do once baby can crawl?

[irishprincess71]

We co-sleep with our 8 1/2 month old. He goes to bed in our bed at 9:00 pm and we go to bed at 12:00. He is finally getting to the stage where he crawls and rolls and we are getting nervous about him waking up without us there and trying to get out from the "pillow fortress" that we build around him.

What can we do to make it safer for him and less worisome for us?

[Quirky]

We dont' have your problem - baby goes to bed at the same time we do, no matter how much we try to convince him it would be better to go to bed earlier! :

Have you thought about taking your bed off the frame and putting it on the floor for now, until he's big enough to get down safely by himself? That way he doesn't have far to go if he does go off the bed.

They sell guardrails but from what I understand they don't work too well; babies can pull up on them and then flip right over.

[auld reekie]

we had a mattress on the floor so he wouldn't hurt himself if he rolled off.We also left the bedroom door open with a babygate over the entrance so he couldn't crawl out of the room on the off chance that i wouldn't hear him if he got up.(like that evr happened!!!)I still kept the gate on even when we were all in bed,i was so scared of him going out the room one night and falling on the stairs(just in case i got into a deep sleep,ha ha

[eclipse]

we moved our mattress to the floor too, although before that we did a pillow fortress on the ground (so if he did fall, he'd land on the pillows). we also taught him as soon as he was crawling, to crawl out of bed feet first.

[babibelli]

Anna sleeps in her pack n play before I xfer her to our bed. Once she rolled off the bed (we have a co-sleeper built next our futon) and it freaked me out-although she didn't hurt herself, she managed to roll about 5 ft in her sleep! other times she sleeps in my or dh's arms (like tonite- i am typing w/ one hand)

[mamacrab]

definitely move the mattress to the floor- you will save yourself so much worry- we don't even use the boxspring- if ds falls, he will fall all of 6 inches, LOL.

[sarasprings]

I am trying (yesterday was the first day) to get my 11 mo to nap and go to sleep at night initially on a twin mattress on the floor next to our bed. After his first night waking, he'll join us on the bed.

[Mariposa]

Abby has been crawling for 2 months now and when she wakes up she literally sits up and starts crawling with her eyes still closed. She usually sleeps on a pillow on the floor in the living room until we go to bed but sometimes sleeps in our bed during naps or before we go to bed.

I put the baby monitor right next to her and pillows all around her. I turn the volume up real loud and run in if I hear even the slightest sound. We live in a small house so this is easy.

We haven't had a problem yet!

[MomOfHeathens]

Aidan rolled off the bed once and I about died even though I wasn't the one who was SUPPOSE to be in the bed with him at the time. Ever since then he either sleeps in his sling on me, on the floor on a flat pillow, or right now his big brother's mattress is on the floor while he awaits a new bed and Aidan will crawl in there and snuggle up until I come get him for bed. Most times though I just go to bed at the same time as him because with him still waking up at night I can use all the sleep I can get!

[mama_kass]

We put our bed on the floor when ds was 3 months old and starting to roll. He goes to bed with us but sleeps in. I leave my br door open so that I can hear him wake in the morning. Usually I go into the br right before he wakes. I just seem to know.

Asian cultures practice AP and they sleep on futons on the floor. I wonder if it is to prevent little ones from falling off the bed?

[zealsmom]

We have slept on a futon on the floor since he was about 4 months. Now, at 2.5, he has been wanting to sleep "on the edge" and since we are on the floor, it is not an issue giving him what he wants. We think it may be a step towards eventually asking for his own bed, because sometimes he'll even roll on to the floor and sleep there with blankets and pillows he has brought in from elsewhere in the house. It's a nice transition, I think.

[hummingbear]

what we did

We have a crib without a rail on one side of our bed, a guard rail on the other and a rolled up quilt across the foot of the bed. It never seemd to be an issue when he started crawling. Putting the matress on the floor is a solution I have heard from many parents. Hope you find what works for your family.

Ann

[smittenmom]

We put dd's crib mattress on the floor between our bed (also on the floor) and the wall. It creates a little enclosed area with just one end open that she could crawl/fall off. She goes to sleep there before we go to bed, and when she wakes up she comes to bed with us.

[Mommy2Marcus]

I just moved our mattress to the floor after ds fell out of bed one day. My 6 month ds awoke from a nap and was able to kick the "pillow fortress" off of the bed and roll right off after them. Luckily he rolled onto the pillows that he kicked off but still, it was a 3 foot drop! I almost died, I felt like a horrible mom. Since then I moved the mattress to the floor and still have pillows surrounding the bed.

[TieDyeMom]

We have a very small house and extremely small bedroom so I couldn't put our mattress on the floor - much of our storage is under a raised frame bed. So, we put a full-size futon on the floor in her room. I nurse her down for naps and at bedtime on the futon and sneak away. She is now used to waking up after naps in her own room and at night when dh and I go to bed I gently carry her into bed with us - she usually "kind of" wakes up and I sometimes use that as a good diaper change opportunity. It seems to work well for us - be careful about waiting though; dh and I had been talking about it for about a week before doing it right when she started crawling. Well, we waited one day too late - hearing her hit the floor was heartwrenching even though she was physically okay. Good luck.

[Proudly AP]

I put the baby monitor right next to her and pillows all around her. I turn the volume up real loud and run in if I hear even the slightest sound. We live in a small house so this is easy.

We haven't had a problem yet!

this is exactly what we do. dd is now walking/running. we put the mattress and boxspring on the floor and have a guardrail on one side of the bed, and put pillows on the other.

when she was smaller (she's 17 months, now). we would place a noisy toy/rattle on each pillow, so we would hear the instant she contacted any of the pillows (or picked up a toy to play with it )--but that didn't happen, really, 'cause as soon as we heard a sound, we'd investigate (we still do)

good luck, i remember fretting about this, too.

i would be cautious about putting pillows on the floor around the bed, in case he rolled off in his sleep and landed face-first in a pillow (it has happened in baskets of laundry )

[Jennifer Z]

We also put the mattress on the floor when ds started crawling. We just have a mattress, no box spring, so it is only about 8 inches above the floor. We also massively babyproofed our bedroom and make sure the door is securely closed so that if he does wake up and manages to get out without us feeling him (unlikely), he isn't likely to get hurt. We also set the mattress about a foot away from any wall (exactly the width of the vaccum cleaner so it is easy to clean). That way, he can't get wedged anywhere.