# How do I safely co-sleep with crawling 9 month old?



## flower (Mar 12, 2003)

Hi everyone,

I need some help!

We've been happily co-sleeping with our 9 month old since birth. I was blessed with a good sleeper this time around and love the closeness of nursing him to sleep and cuddling with him thoughout the night.

What I do is nurse him to sleep around 7:30p and put pillows on each side of the bed so he won't roll off. We join him to sleep around 11p ...the other night he managed to roll on top of the pillow and fell off the bed! We have a low bed and thick carpeting so thankfully he was ok but I felt awful. The next day I went and bought a side rail but it won't fit on our bed because we have a platform bed with only one mattress.

He just started crawling and is waking up crying on all fours. I am terrified that he will fall off again.

I've thought of simple solutions like moving one side of the bed against the wall or taking the bed apart and just sleeping on the floor. Both are feasible but how do I keep him in the bed even if it's just a mattress on the floor? He is VERY active and isn't the kind to sit still. I can just picture him sitting up and rolling off the mattress.

I feel like my only option is to move my toddler into a toddler bed and put him in the crib in our room until he wakes for the first time when we are sleeping, then he can co-sleep safely between his parents. I dread doing this because it's going to start sleep battles. I am not prepared to go to sleep for the night with him at 7:30p either--that's not an option.

How do people co-sleep with a baby at this stage??

Any suggestions??


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## Colorful~Mama (Feb 20, 2003)

we went thru the same thing with zoey at that age. our bed is an old style California king waterbed, but with a pillowtop mattress not a waterbed mattress. Its very high off the ground and she did a nose dive off the side. It as frightening and we knew she was so mobile it would happen again.

we tried side rails but she crawled right over them. we tried a sidecar and she crawled right out of it (even using a monitor to listen to her sometimes she was just too quiet and too fast!)

finally we ended up buying a fullsize mattress and putting it on the floor of her room (that she'd never slept in). I'd nurse her to sleep in her bed and then roll away. That way if she crawled off the bed she'd be so close to the floor she couldn't get hurt. only once did she wake up noiseless...she crawled all the way down the hall and found me in the kitchen. LOL.

anyway. i'd go in again when she woke at like midnight and nurse her and sometimes sleep with her in there a few hours. Sometimes dh would sleep in there with us, sometimes not. Sometimes i'd go back to bed with dh, sometimes i'd just stay in there with her.

once she started walking sometimes she'd wake up and just get into bed with us when she'd wake up. so we got the best of both worlds..she'd sleep most of the night in her room and we had some privacy, then she'd join us later and we got the joy of cosleeping and waking up with her int he morning.

now she's 2 1/2 and thats still what we do. Dh and I lay with her at bedtime and cuddle till she falls asleep. Sometimes he sleeps with her a while, sometimes i do, sometimes we both get up and spend time together. Then dh and i can have some private time to talk or read in bed. She sleeps from about 8:30pm till about 2 or 3am most nights in there, then wakes up. Sometimes she goes potty, or needs a drink, but most of the time she just walks into our room, climbs up the stepstool we have for her (and the old terrier who can't jump up anymore) and crawls over daddy to sleep in between us. The cutest part is when she says "i'm here now. you can go back to sleep". lol. And we all do.

i like the partial cosleeping. just what worked for us tho


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## MamaMonica (Sep 22, 2002)

We got rid of our bed and got a mattress on the floor. Here we are, years later- still with a mattress on the floor - two, actaully- pushed together...


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## flower (Mar 12, 2003)

thanks for the replies.

we took apart our bed and put it on the floor pushed up against one wall.

at least if he does manage to fall or crawl out, he can't get hurt.

i'm so not ready to put him in the crib...

thanks ladies!


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