# Sidecar crib - what do you like?



## ilovejeff (Apr 14, 2008)

We are going to sidecar a crib for the baby once she arrives. I'm scouring craigslist for a used one (but only if I can verify that it hasn't been recalled) but am also open to buying new. Do you have any tips as far as what features to look for/avoid, brands, etc?


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## gorgorita (Feb 5, 2008)

You will probably end up sleeping together and snuggling with your baby right next to you and not in the crib (bed sharing that is). So just skip the crib altogether. We have our crib side cared and DD never sleeps in it. I put her in the crib for the beginning of the night until she wakes up to nurse. That happens by the time I go to bed so we end up sleeping together.
Besides, nursing while you're on your bed and baby's in the crib is exhausting to say the least. It's rare that the crib is precisely the same height as your bed and believe me laying in between is uncomfortable. So I just bring DD with us to nurse. When she's teething she wakes up every hour and it's easier for me to just have her laying in my bed.
What I would recommend to consider is buying a mattress and putting it beside your bed. You'll have more space to stretch and it takes as much space in your bedroom as a crib.
Another point to consider, when babies grow up a little they're starting to sleep all over the bed and you will sometimes seek for place to retrieve. Crib will be no good for it.
Just me 2 cents
Good luck!


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## JudiAU (Jun 29, 2008)

We bought a mini-cosleeper which DS hated. That thing has the hardest matress on the planet. He liked to sleep with us or in the crib we also had. Babies are picky about matresses it sleeps. With this one we bought a natural latex insert that will hopefully help. BUT... I fully expect that there will be some bedsharing as well. DS would wake up if moved after nursing. Some women have the anatomy to nurse while the baby is in a co-sleeper or sidecar'd crib, my sister (god bless her) did, and that makes all the difference.

Personally, I suggest spending more on a natural matress and less on a crib. We like the Ikea Gulliver a lot. It is cheap, easy to assemble, and easy to access.


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## newmomrose (Jun 11, 2009)

We use the Arm's Reach Mini, and like it. It doesn't take up too much room, and fits in our small bedroom. It has wheels on the bottom and can be moved easily. The mattress is kind of hard but DD doesn't seem to mind.

She started out, probably the first 5 weeks, sleeping in bed with us, then as she started sleeping longer between nursing at night I started putting her in it. For about 2 months, she slept through the night in it next to us and it was great! She was right there in "arm's reach" and I could feel her breathing, check that she was warm enough etc. without getting up and without rousing her. It was also nice to have more room in bed and be able to snuggle more with my husband. For the last week or so she has been waking up partway through the night to nurse, and I find it easy to transfer her into our bed for side-lying nursing. Then, she usually sleeps the rest of the night in bed with us.

I do know a few people who have bought the side-cars and regretted it because they ended up not using them (one took the baby into their bed, one used a crib in another room), but I am glad I have mine. Especially the last few weeks as it has been really hot and it's nice to not have another body IN the bed. In our house, we also have a crib and I was just open to the possibility of my baby sleeping anywhere, wherever we found it works for all of us. So far she has never slept in the crib and I am very happy with her in our room with us. I think it's a good idea to have a few options so you can find what works for your particular baby and situation.


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## mamadelbosque (Feb 6, 2007)

We just re-side carred our crib (had it side carred the last time for the first couple months before moving in with my dad - the past 2 years we've had two twin mattresses on the floor, but back in march/april we bought us a new queen size bed and gave the twin's to DS (stacked ontop of each other for the moment). If your bed is only a full or queen, I'd definetly think about side carring a crib. Yeah, baby will be in your bed sometimes, but having that extra couple feet to lay him/her down in even for just a couple hours of rest is fantastic. And its also a nice place to store diapers!!

The last time around, the crib and our bed was exactly the same height, though this time its about 1+" higher up than our bed, which, tbh is barely noticable. Good luck!!


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## LionessMom (Mar 12, 2008)

yeah the baby will be in your bed. the crib will give you peace of mind though. if baby likes to roll around in their sleep or whatever the crib will keep the babe from falling off the bed. the older they get the more they like to move. well mine does at least.

i would measure your bed from floor to top of mattress. then i would measure the crib from floor to mattress. you can prob get them the same height that way. even when DD was almost 2 years old we still had the crib on the highest setting and she never tried to climb out. but i know lots of people who would just make sure the crib was next to the wall.

here is how we had mine and how we will do it for the next one.

http://s366.photobucket.com/albums/o...t=100_0882.jpg

last time i just had a rolled up baby comforter in betweent the rail and the mettress. this time i bought a pool noodle that i will cut down to the right length. that way the 2 mattresses are tight against each other. that is where we laid. i was always half in the crib.


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## JMJ (Sep 6, 2008)

When I was pregnant, I found this website, a great resource when trying to sidecar a crib. We didn't use bungi cords but just put our crib against a wall and our bed up against that so that it wouldn't go anywhere. We also went completely organic, so instead of the foam, we use a tightly stuffed pillow that my mom helped me make. We also needed one for the area between the tops of the two mattresses where they curved apart and created a space that was large enough to be an entrapment hazard. A good rule of thumb is if you can fit only 2 fingers in the space, it's fine; if you can fit 3, it's too big. Entrapment (usually between the headboard and the mattress) is the main way babies die in adult beds, not parents rolling over them.

I would also try to make sure that your bed is safe from entrapment hazards since your baby will have access to it. The first few nights of my DD's life, I was pretty sore and couldn't get over to the side of the bed by the crib very well, so DH and I switched sides for a few nights with baby cosleeping for easy nursing.

In a crib, you're looking for one that has a drop side because then you know that you can assemble it without the 4th side, and it will still be sturdy. Many of these have been recalled because kids were caught by the moving parts and injured or killed. This is not a factor with a sidecarred crib since the moving side is not part of your setup. You may also want to avoid a crib that uses particle board as it contains toxic chemicals.

Many people on here are recommending a cosleeper. They are smaller than a normal crib, and they have weight limits. They are also not tall enough for an older baby to keep from climbing out and falling. I'm sure they are great for a younger baby, but you may still have to get a crib later, though if you are planning to ever use a stand-alone crib, you may prefer the kind with no drop side since they are safer when used as stand-alone cribs.

Like many of the others here, we ended up just taking her into our bed, and she sleeps cuddled up with me. I never thought I would until the night she was born when I couldn't get over to the other side of the bed, but now, I wouldn't dream of doing it any other way. I thought some MDC folks were crazy when they told me that is what would happen, so feel free to think that I'm crazy if you like.

I still like the sidecarred crib, though. Our bed is only a full, so it's nice to have the extra space. There's no way she can roll off the bed because she would just roll into the safe sidecarred crib or Daddy depending on what side of me she's on. There's no she can get caught between the mattress and the wall (if we had just put it up against the wall). I can set things in the crib (book, water bottle, etc). We can overflow into the crib (arms, legs, etc). I can set her there for naps alone, especially when I need to wash my sheets.


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## ilovejeff (Apr 14, 2008)

Thanks for all the responses - it's great to know the challenges and successes that others have had.

I was actually going to come back and ask about the differences in mattress heights!

DD won't be able to sleep between DH and I because he's on medication, so I need to sleep between them. I do imagine that she'll end up in the "big bed" a lot of the time, but I'd like the option of a little more square footage









I've been scouring craigslist for a crib, but a lot of people don't seem to know the model/manufacturer. Do I not need to worry about this so much since it's just going to be sidecared?


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## JMJ (Sep 6, 2008)

The closer in height it is, the better. Half an inch is not a problem. We were able to fudge ours so that it's as good as even. A full inch could probably still be doable. You can adjust most cribs to heights 2-3 inches apart, so you're likely to get one that you can live with. If you're planning on laying part way in the crib to nurse ever, you might be better off trying to get one that is exactly the same height or really close to it. You could always ask the people who are selling the cribs if they could measure the height of the lowest setting and the interval between settings, and that should give you some more info. Good luck!


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## Raene (Jul 24, 2008)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *JMJ* 
When I was pregnant, I found this website, a great resource when trying to sidecar a crib. We didn't use bungi cords but just put our crib against a wall and our bed up against that so that it wouldn't go anywhere.

This is what we're doing too. We bought a used crib from a used kids clothing store (they make sure they've not been recalled) which came with a crappy mattress. We put the mattress at the lowest setting (crib has 3 heights) and then bought a better mattress to go on top of that crappy one. Now it's exactly the same height as our bed.

Bringing a baby into our bed isn't a possibility b/c DH is large and we take up our whole Queen. This seems to be the perfect solution for us and I'm looking forward to it


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## LionessMom (Mar 12, 2008)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *JMJ* 
We also needed one for the area between the tops of the two mattresses where they curved apart and created a space that was large enough to be an entrapment hazard. A good rule of thumb is if you can fit only 2 fingers in the space, it's fine; if you can fit 3, it's too big. Entrapment (usually between the headboard and the mattress) is the main way babies die in adult beds, not parents rolling over them.


that is the one thing not in my pic that i did add when DD started scooting/ a nice-just the right size travel pillow that i wedged in there. totally filled the space so she couldnt get anything down there.


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## octobermom (Aug 31, 2005)

We did the side car and LOVED it. She could fully come over nurse and snuggle when she needed to but also had her own space when that was needed. Here is a picture we had the jenny lind crib just removed the side rail and placed the mattress the same level as our bed the weight of the bed held it all in place. DD was silly she loved to snuggle when she nursed but then wanted her space









http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...eepyladies.jpg

Deanna


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## Raene (Jul 24, 2008)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *octobermom* 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...eepyladies.jpg


Love it, thanks for sharing! I can't wait to sidecar...everything's set up, just waiting for the baby!


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## moondiapers (Apr 14, 2002)

We have a wooden bedframe. There used to be a good 4 inches between the foot of the bed and the matress, so we cut the side rails 4 inches shorter. The matress is a really tight fit now (pinches my fingers tucking in the sheets) Then we removed the side from the crib and used these metal straps (think water heater straps) to attach the crib to our bed frame. Because our bedframe is an inch and a half thick (the side slats) we had to either have the matress support of the crib match the level of our side slats or put a wedge between them. With some fenaglnig we managed to get them even so we only needed the foam pieces for the space between the crib matress and the back of the crib. I prefered the crib matress to be a couple of inches lower than our matress. It would have been hard to make them even since we have a double pillow top matress. And at some point I wanted the baby to get used to sleeping in his own bed at some point. When he was small the crib was only there as a safe place to fall if he rolled out of my bed, AND a safe place to nap where he couldn't just roll UP onto my matress in his sleep. It was a really lovely solution







This time I'm going to refinish the crib first so it matches our bed







our crib is blonde wood but we have a cherry sleigh bed.


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