Co-Sleepers

[Urowife]

Hey all - wanted to bring this thread up again as we are thinking about getting one this time around. My only question is which size to get. Would someone who has the mini cosleeper mind measuring the sleeping area for me? We don't really need the playard option of the original size, so I figure if we could save a little money by getting the mini, that would be good. But, if it's not much bigger than the bassinet we have currently, I'll need to spring for the original size because I'm guessing this baby will be tall. Thanks!

[SoonerTexan]

At not even 3 months N would have grown out of the mini, but she is far from being able to pull herself up and therefore not using it anymore. I need to take a pic of our setup.

[SoonerTexan]

Although my child is a monster

[Auspicious]

I think she was eventually diagonal, but Hazel slept in the mini for six months (we did not have any other place for her until we moved out of our residency apartment, not even room for a pack-n-play), and she was quite a tall baby, in the 90s percentile-wise. Here is a video of her waking up in the thing at 4 months, when apparently she was 26 inches long.

http://theyareheretoreplaceus.blogsp...4/stretch.html

[Ravenclaw]

My verdict on the co-sleeper: I LOVE it. We had a crib in our bedroom the first time around but the co-sleeper is SO much more convenient. It's amazing to just be able to reach over and get the baby while also not worrying about rolling over the baby in the middle of the night. (Not that I think I'd actually do that, but I sleep too lightly when the baby is in the bed with me because of that fear.)

The drawbacks to it are the mattress and the sides. The mattress is way too thin and hard. I get why it has to be firm but they could have made it a bit thicker--it folds in half. And I wish the sides were higher so you could keep them in it for longer.

[SoonerTexan]

We are very close to N growing out of it and I'm so sad! I love this thing.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

We punted the pack and play next to our bed. It was too annoying to get her in and out of. Next time, I'm buying a cosleeper. She now exclusively cosleeps with us. Luckily, DH grew up in a pretty laid back household and his sister cosleeps with their 19 month old so this isn't a big problem.

[Phoebe]

DD4 cosleeps sometimes with me. No one else is in the King size bed though but me.

[samssugarmomma]

DD4 cosleeps sometimes with me. No one else is in the King size bed though but me.

We do this too. Poor DH - he always gets booted to the couch by the kids!

Does anyone have advice on whether to get the co-sleeper or to sidecar a crib next to our bed? I'm completely undecided on this.

[SoonerTexan]

Hmmm I don't know the logistics of the crib setup, but it was nice to have 4 sides on the cosleeper.

[Michele]

I did both. The mini co-sleeper was portable enough that I could move it to the living room (where I recovered post C-sections) when they were little. I could also move it for naps if I wasn't wearing the baby.

But they outgrow the mini cosleeper pretty quickly...4-6 months. For D and K I used a side car crib....our regular crib, but I removed one side. I pushed back of crib to wall and bed to crib. Then I put a body pillow on the wall side of the crib mattress to push the crib mattress flush against the bed mattress.

I think I'm between the full size ARC and a sidecarred crib. I like that the ARC has 4 sides and that we won't need to modify it in any way. The crib I'm a little iffy on because we'd need to basically jury rig a way to use it as a co-sleeper, and I'm not 100% comfortable with that.

Size-wise, how does the original ARC compare to a typical crib?

Also, I'm a little worried about DD pulling up on the sides of the co-sleeper and tumbling out. I had to drop DS's crib mattress to the floor around 5 mths because he was such a little monkey. Or is that a silly concern with a co-sleeper since the baby can scoot onto the bed anyway?

[SoonerTexan]

Size-wise, how does the original ARC compare to a typical crib?

It is the size of a pack n play and can be used as a pack n play after they are done with it. They recommend not using it as a co-sleeper once a child can pull up...we're just about there at 6.5 months.

Definitely get the sheet I linked to in this thread (the Eddie Bauer one) if you go with the original Arm's Reach...the sheet that comes with it is beyond awful.