Talk to me about co-sleepers, please

RondackHiker

I'm considering investing in a co-sleeper for baby number two. I figured you ladies were the experts!

The plan will be to buy off Craigslist. I've been wondering if the height of the mattress adjusts to match the height of our bed. Right now we don't have a bedroom set (the freebie we had didn't make our last move and furniture wasn't a high priority in med school), so our box spring and mattress are on the floor and fairly low. We may buy a bedroom set this winter, and I have no idea what it's height will be. Since we don't know if we will buy or not I can't plan on a set height for the cosleeper.

Also, are there any models/styles of the cosleeper I should avoid or try to find?

mb314

I used the Arm's Rest Co-Sleeper Mini.  We have a particularly high bed, so I bought leg extenders for the bed which were made by Arm's Reach for the co-sleeper. 

I don't think the Arm's Reach would work for a mattress and boxspring on the floor, but should work for most bed frames.  At worst, you will need to spend an extra $20 on leg extenders. 

ETA:  I just read the instructions online for the Arm's Reach, and it looks like the minimum height for the mattress is 18" off the ground.

=Lee=B

If your mattress is on the floor then can you use a crib mattress on the floor beside your mattress (with no box spring). 

 

That would buy you time until baby is mobile to consider what furniture you are buying yourself and what will work for your baby.  You can then buy something completely new for baby or continue to use that mattress on the floor for baby, use that mattress in a crib, sidecar a crib with that mattress etc. 

 

spinsoffresonance

Lurker here. I have the arms reach mini cosleeper and love it. We got the leg extension kit to match the height of our bed, they come in 2" increments. When DD was born she wouldn't sleep in it though, she had to be held constantly so we bed shared for 10weeks. Then she was is the cosleeper until she was 7 months. She's 85th percentile in height an still had a few inches to spare in the mini. We moved her to the crib though because she started being mobile and the cosleeper didn't seem safe anymore. I will definitely use it again with LO2.

nanabanana06

Our mattress and box spring are on the floor and we used the Mini. It worked great. Our bed if fairly high though. As long as it's 18" from the floor your good for the Mini. The regular I think needs 24".