Looking for your experience/advice/solutions for co-sleeping with a crawler...

Way back when, Johnny couldn't roll over - so putting a pillow between me and the edge of the bed was perfectly adequate. Then, as he was able to roll himself, making sure he was between me and the Mr. was sufficient for safety. Now, he can get around pretty darned well, and I'm getting nervous about co-sleeping. I tend to fall back to sleep while he nurses, and I'm terrified I'm going to wake up to his screams if he manages to fall off the bed.

Words of wisdom?

[Ava Black]

Are you saying for when your dh isn't there or are you afraid he will crawl away? Jace turns around and rolls but wakes me up. He doesn't try to crawl away. I only co-sleep part of the morning when dh goes to work otherwise he is in his pnp.

I'm thinking he will just want to be close to you when he wakes and will wake you if he is up for more than nursing.

[pfmommy07]

I know of a few moms that put their mattress and box spring on the floor for this very reason. I would try and start teaching him the edge of the bed isn't "fun". During the day get on it with him and have him crawl to the edge but then help him turn around and get down the right way..if he goes to crawl off you will be right there. You could also put pillows(dog bed pillows work great, new of course)since they are bigger.

Aiden knows the edge of the bed, and doesn't go near it for the most part. And if he does its normally on my side where I have a pile of our spare blankets.

Thanks! My biggest thing isn't that he's going to crawl off the bed, exactly - it's that he needs quite a bit of room behind him to sit up. Which he, of course, thinks is the greatest thing EVER. So he gets pretty close to the edge and then tries to sit up, and if he does it when I'm sleeping and the Mr. isn't in bed, he's probably going to fall off one of these days. Best solution is just to get up when the Mr. does, but I don't like 5.30 in the morning very much.

[MamaEarle]

Ryley is still in my bed, but I have her between me and the wall, although I have woken up on occasion to her trying to climb on me/over me!! If I get up before she does, I worry about her waking up and crawling out of bed, but thankfully she just crawls to the end of the bed and cries for me. When we were on vacation a couple weeks ago I had her in a bed in the hotel that didn't have a wall right next to it and even though I slept with my arm around her, she still managed to fall out of bed in the middle of the night! I about had a heart attack when I heard the thud and her crying, we all got up and checked her out, but she was fine... my great grandmother has some saying about all kids needing to fall out of bed at least once before they turn 1 for good luck or something of the sort....

[ashleykathleen]

Kiefer doesn't eat in bed so this may be different, but as soon as he's awake enough to be moving around there is no sleeping through it. He is very rambunctious and clumsy so it has never been an issue at our house.