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New to co-sleeping, gotta a question

434 views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  bluets 
#1 ·
Hi everyone!

I am new to this forum, but have posted on TBW website quite a bit. Our family has stumbled into co-sleeping by accident, not that I had anything against it, but it didn't work for us in the beginning and she was perfectly content in her crib. Then one day, she turned 7 months, developed separation anxiety and started serious teething all in one day. That night she was beside herself uncomfortable despite motrin, Hyland's, etc, etc (I guess at this point I should mention she's a "high needs" child) so I slept with her in our bed and she now refuses to go back to her crib. She actually seems terrified of it. So ok, I'm ok with this, if she wants to sleep with us and she now finally sleeps through the night this way (would wake up 2-3 times in her own crib), that's the way we'll do it.
My question is this, how do I let her nap safely in our bed once she's able to get up and crawl? I'm afraid she'll fall out of the bed. Right now she just rolls, but we put pillows all around her and I'm in and out of our bedroom checking on her, but that's not going to work once she's mobile--what do you do?
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#4 ·
We taught our dd to "back off" using a little poem ("lead with the feet/ and not with the head/, that's the best way/ to get out of bed"...okay, it's not gonna win any prizes, but it's easy to remember!)


Basically we let her crawl to the edge of the bed over and over and then helped her swing her legs around so that she could get off the bed feet/bottom first with her tummy pressed against the side of the bed. We said the little poem each time and now she turns herself around and goes off the bed feet first 90% of the time. However, our mattress is right on the floor and we usually put a folded blanket along the side of the mattress so that if dd does fall it wont be a big deal.

During the day DD naps in a little nest in the living room since the bedrooms are all upstairs and we dont heat up there during the day. Actually, we use a doggie bed (it's made from organic materials, and I got the idea from another thread hear at mdc...it's the perfect size for dd and she looks sooooo cute curled up in it with her stuffed puppy dog). Before the puppy bed we used a few folded blankets and a boppy to create a daytime nap corner.
 
#5 ·
Just wanted to second the above post. When your baby starts crawling you're going to want to teach the back-off method anyways (stairs) and a crawling baby is very smart, I never did a poem (although it is a catchy little thing) but we always said "backwards" when turning my son around when he crawled to a ledge, they pick it up suprisingly quick. We also had a drop railing on the side of the bed.
 
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