[jessicajordan87]

Hi,

My name is Jessica and I am a mother of two precious boys. My youngest son Cameron has a progressive brain disease that has yet to be diagnosed. He has severe developmental delay. He does not walk or talk or communicate in any way really. He has come so far since we began therapy a year ago. I have never been on a forum before but I am very excited to have a resource like this because as I'm sure you all know-having a child with special needs can be like flying blind sometimes. The doctors favorite statements are "we just don't know" and "there just isn't any way to tell" or "lets do this test" and so on.

Cameron is going to be two years old soon, but he has the mental capacity of a baby. We just recently began trying to get him to sleep on his own-he sleeps with my husband and I. He wakes often and is VERY restless in his sleep. We have not been able to get him to sleep in a crib because when he flops all around he hits the sides and instantly wakes crying. Also, because of his brain damage I suppose, he does not understand most things. If I get him to sleep on his own by some miracle, when he wakes up he begins screaming a heart wrenching cry. It is almost like a panic attack, he just doesn't understand. It's like he wakes up alone and just freaks out. It's so sad.

Anyway-sorry to ramble. I am on the hunt for some type of bed for him. I was hoping to find something with tall sides that is also padded for when he tosses and turns. I have found a few things online, but they are so expensive which is frustrating because we receive no help from medicaid or ss or anything like that and if insurance refuses to pay it will all be out of pocket.

I guess my question is for you other moms of special babies. What does your child sleep in? Do you have any suggestions for us?

Thanks in advance for any and all advice.

[Mod-quietsong]

I don't have any experience personally, but know some people through the CMV community (the virus my son was born with) who have some. Almost always, insurance has been willing to cover. Here are some of the beds that they've used -

SleepSafe Beds - The Safety Bed - Sleep Safe - Overview of Bed Features Low, Medium and High Bed Models.
Posey Bed - Posey Co.
Pedicraft: Hospital Cribs, Baby Cribs, Rover cribs & Baby Safety Products

Also, have you tried some breathable bumpers for his crib? That may be enough to pad the sides to allow him to roll around without waking himself up.

[Nami]

My son use to toss and turn like crazy and putting him in a crib he'd get into a corner and scream, everything we tried failed so he's been in our bed since birth. Our specialist told us to just try a mat on the floor and let him sleep like that so we did.. He does wonderful there! He does roll around but has space for that so he doesn't wake up screaming when he gets stuck since he's not getting stuck on anything. He also sleeps better than he ever has! So that could be something to try?

[jessicajordan87]

Thank you for the information! I put him back in the crib for the first time last night with a breathable bumper. He did ok. He didn't make it all night, but partially. He is just so restless. He throws himself around ALL NIGHT. I'm so afraid he will fall off our bed so we are going to try and make this work.