Disclaimer: Sleeping and sleep arrangements are such a difficult topic, and there are so many views. I’m going to put a disclaimer out here just in case! First and foremost, I cannot emphasise how many experts say that co-sleeping isn’t a good idea because it’s dangerous. But as a mom, I completely understand why so many moms co-sleep (it’s waaaay easier tbh!). I did find some safe co-sleeping strategies, like mom sleeping in between bub and husband, pulling away loose blankets etc. So please, do not simply take this post as an encouragement to co-sleep. Please do your research and decide if co-sleeping is the way you’d want to go! This is merely just how I did it, but I will not take responsibility in the event that this method results in an adverse situation in another household. Thank you! 🙂
Anyway, to the issue at hand. During the first 3 months of life, we had a baby who couldn’t be put down. Literally meant that she nursed, fell asleep at the breast, and woke the moment we put her down. It also meant that the most effective way for me to get some time out would be to feed her whilst lying down sideways and then ninja rolling away! Of course that would prove pretty dangerous if you only had a queen bed in the middle of nowhere – we’d be worried she’d roll off the bed. So I tied her cot to my bed to make that safer, and to make night feeds easier. This is completely DIY – the cot is a normal cot that I have now (at 6 months) finally separated.
Anyway, what I did, was to remove one side of the cot rails. I cable-tied that to the head of the bed, so that I had somewhere to hang decorative things (left photo above). Can we just take a moment to appreciate how that colourful chicken, lovingly known as Crazy Chook, is as old as I am? He was my toy when I was a baby.
I also cable-tied a multiplug soapbar so that I could attach my phone charger, a baby monitor, night light etc. (right image)
I then used twine, but feel free to use stronger string, to tie the cot to my bed as tightly as possible (left photo). When I did that, I had to check multiple times that the cot couldn’t wobble, or that there wasn’t a gap below the mattress.
(Refer to right pic above) So the problem that removing one rail created was that then there would be more space than required where the mattress should be. So if you look at the remaining rail, what I did was to stuff layers of cot-liners (photo on left below), to fill up that gap and make sure that everything is snug (i.e. no gaps for the child to roll into).
So there we have it! Again I think with everything there are risks involved. I chose to do this with calculated risk vs. benefit (of getting a little more sleep). So while I’m sharing this, I take no responsibility for the risks one takes in following, but I highly advocate to do some reading and research on co-sleeping to decide if this is the thing for you!