co-sleepers?

[crunchierthanthou]

anyone use one?

We just did a sidecar with our crib for ds from about 4-10 months, but he never slept in it other that so I gave it away. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do this time.

proper co-sleeper?
borrow my sister's crib and do the side-car thing again? (not entirely easy since she lives 700 miles away)
bed rails?
those humanity family bolster thingies?

[JerseyGirl'sMama]

get a second mattress. You and newborn on one, SO and DC on other. :p

[amy919]

With Kaylie, she was in bed with us from 6 weeks on. She was in the middle between Matt and I in one of those co-sleeper things - like this (http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2266116&cp=2256245). I loved it. Used it until she was about 6 months.

Teagan was in a cradle since I wasn't comfortable with a 3 year old and an infant in the bed with us until she outgrew it at 15 pounds. She was about 9 months at that point and from there just joined us in our bed. It was a very crowded place :rolleyes:.

[mybabysmomma]

I think it's a matter of preference really. I had an Arm's Reach cosleeper for my first and I hated it. He hated it even more. The only thing that was ever in there was the laundry that I was too lazy to fold or too lazy to put on the chair late at night after it had been on the bed all day. Occasionally I would wake up with my bum in it when I would get pushed out of bed by the little monster so I guess I can say that I was the only person who slept in it.

With my youngest, I didn't bother with the cosleeper and did the sidecar thing. I personally loved that, but truthfully, I can count on 2 hands the number of times she slept in it. She was a horrid refluxer though and hardly ever slept. When she did sleep, she was either in my armpit or in her swing.

I really liked the sidecar because it offered so much more room (especially for me when I got pushed out of bed) and because when my oldest was having a bad night, there was a place for him to sleep without all of us being smushed into one bed.

Those are just my experiences though. I know a lot of people who truly love their cosleeper and I know a lot more who hated it just as much as I did. I found the cosleeper "mattress" to be extremely firm (too firm to be comfortable) and would put folded up blankets under the sheet to make it softer. Then I got paranoid because I didn't feel like that was safe so I just kept him in bed with me. He was SO much happier in my bed.

I also didn't like how it wasn't truly flush with the height of the parent's mattress. The baby is about 4 inches lower and I found that to be a big fat pain in the butt when I just wanted to roll over and nurse. Instead of just rolling over, I had to physically take the baby out of the cosleeper, lay him next to me and then put him back when we were done. If I knew it was going to be that much trouble I would have just put the pack n play next to my bed in bassinet mode and saved myself a hundred bucks.

Good luck figuring out what to do!

[adamsmommy]

We had the mini co sleeper and it was used for about the first 4 weeks and then it was a changing table. I sold it on craigslist. If you want to try it, maybe check there and get new sheets. I know others used theirs for months.

[Niea]

We are using the co-sleeper mini. I know a lot of people don't like co-sleepers, but it's worked out very well for us. DS is 4.5 mos now and I can see him using it for another month or two. DS spends about half the night in bed with us and the other half in the co-sleeper.

We're really short on space in our house right now and don't have the space for the full co-sleeper or a crib. . so the mini it is. We really have no option of putting him somewhere else because now that he's rolling, he can fall off the big bed. I was expecting to be less than thrilled with it, based on other people's experiences, but I've actually been very happy with it!

[popsicle]

The Arms reach worked great for us too. It took a leg extension kit to get it to the height of our super tall mattress, but after that it was fine. Ki usually ended up sleeping next to me on the bed anyway, but it was there in case he rolled. Once he was big enough that I felt OK with him being next to DH, we got rid of the co-sleeper and he just slept in the middle.

[crunchierthanthou]

thanks for the input. I'm mostly worried about after the baby starts rolling. Like the pp, I liked the sidecar because it gave that extra buffer so that no one was falling out of bed (myself included). Ds never actually slept in it. I want to get a comfy chair to go in the bay window for nursing, so I was thinking of the arms reach because it was the same principle but a little smaller. Our bed isn't super high and I know you can get risers to make it level with the mattress.

It's good to know that there are few fans. That's probably why they're always on CL. I'm just not sure I want to invest the effort or expense of getting another crib.

[momtoirs]

We used an Arm's Reach co-sleeper with DS. We didn't have room to have a crib in our arm and the co-sleeper fit well. We have a platform bed and, to get it ton fit properly, had to have the Universal model, which is a bit harder to find and costs a bit more. At first, DS would only sleep in his bouncy seat. We put the bouncy seat in the co-sleeper. Eventually, he slept in the co-sleeper, until he got a really bad cold and again slept better in the bouncy seat in the co-sleeper. We used it until he started getting up on hands and knees and then put extra long bed rails on both sides of our bed. The bed rails are still there. DS doesn't sleep with us every night any more, but still comes in often enough that we haven't taken them down. We could probably take one side off, but he often sleeps up against the rail when he does join us in the night. Our co-sleeper has been in regular use for much of the almost 4 years. We've loaned it to friends and co-workers. Its about to come back and we don't yet have anyone to loan it to for the first time.

Tina
Mom to Ian, 3 1/2 years

[unityco]

We had the Mini and barely used it. I agree with mybabysmomma about the height difference being an issue. I had a c-section and found I couldn't lift him out of the Co-Sleeper without sitting up first, and sitting up was hard! It also didn't help that he'd outgrown it by 3mo.

If I had a natural birth, I might give it a try again, though.

BTW, what exactly is a sidecar? Are you all just referring to a crib put beside the bed?

[crunchierthanthou]

sidecar a crib (http://www.freewebs.com/sidecarcrib/)

it's just a regular crib with one side removed. we were fortunate that the lowest setting on the crib was level with our mattress. we bungee corded the crib legs to our bed and wedged towels along the far side of the crib mattress so there was no gap. We used a mesh bed rail on dh's side of the bed.

[unityco]

Gotcha! That's what I thought you were referring to, but I wondered if maybe it was a trade name for a competitor to the Arm's Reach. Thanks for clarifying!

[bobandjess99]

we just threw ds in bed with us, LOL.
With dd, she slept in between us, and with ds, i planned to use one of the snuggle nest things, but never bought one..for teh first couple months, he slept next to me by the wall, so aqs to be protected from dd's flailing limbs....now, at 7.5 months, he and dd sleep in between dh and I..he has to fend for himself from her flailing limbs like the rest of us!