Moses basket / crib / cot bed??

ema_o

Hello

Just trying to get everything organised for our little un and am getting confused about what we should have him sleep in!

We have a moses basket but not yet got a mattress for this, however I have been reading that often babies don't fit in these for very long. Also it came with a hood (which i wasn't that keen on so have removed - is there any benefit in having a hood on it?

We have ordered a cot bed for longer term. What I'm wondering (assuming it fits next to our bed) would it be easier to just use this from the start rather than using the Moses basket? Is there a benefit having baby in a Moses basket when he's very small?

Also, I have been looking at swinging cribs wondering if these would be a better option than the Moses basket if the cot bed doesn't fit in our room!

As we need to buy mattress and a stand for the Moses basket I'm not bothered if we don't use it and go for something else instead, but only if that will be alright for bubs!

Would really appreciate opinions if you don't mind

Thanks
Em

building_with_lego

The thing about a Moses basket is that it's portable. With both of ours they fell asleep downstairs with us in the evening, then when we went to bed we carried the basket upstairs and popped it into the cot bed. Once they were sleeping more reliably they would be put to bed upstairs in the early evening; this coincided with them outgrowing the basket (about 10 weeks IIRC).
The cot bed has lasted two children- one for about 2 years, and DS is still in it aged 3 and a half, and as his bedroom is miniscule I'm keeping him in it as long as he fits! Definitely better value than a cot in my experience.

Alfalfa

Morning!

Our baby is due 31st March and although we've bought a cot bed for their room we also have a Mama's and Papa's travel cot for the first 6 months when he/she is in our room. It'll last longer than a moses basket and we can use it as a playpen after the baby has gone into their own room. I liked the look of the swinging cribs but they seemed to me a waste of money, like the moses basket the baby will grow out of it pretty quick.

xxx

DueMarch11

Purely because we havent had to actually fork out for any of it we have all 3.

Moses for downstairs, swinging crib for our room and cotbed.

DD didnt like her swinging crib at first so we used to transport the moses upstairs and put it inside the swinging crib until she was a couple weeks old then she seemed to get used to it.

Cot we moved her into at about 5 months then we turned it into a cotbed just after her 2nd birthday.

This time around we have the moses basket for downstairs again, the crib in our room again (if this one decides it doesnt like the crib we will do the same as last time and transport it) and dd is still sleeping in the cotbed but we do have a bog standard single bed set up in her room ready for when this one needs the cot.

Just waiting for this one to turn up now!

Nicki

As you already have the Moses basket, i'd suggest you go ahead and buy the mattress which are cheap. You don't need a stand really. Upstairs you can pop the basket inside the cot bed, and we always just put the basket on the floor when we had it downstairs, even when we had two older kids running around! I really liked having the Moses basket as it meant the baby could sleep downstairs with us in the evening, which meant no running upstairs to feed and change every few hours, and when we were ready for bed we carried them up in the basket without waking them. Ours were all in their baskets for about 12 weeks. You can use pillow cases for sheets and pram blankets for bedding, so aside from the mattress you would have no extra costs. And no, they don't need to have a hood. Ours had one which was purely decorative and we never used it for all 3 of our kids.

I think you might find the cot bed too big to use for a newborn from the word go. They are a lot bigger than a standard size cot, as they are designed to fit kids up to about age 5. Very young babies don't really like to rattle around too much when sleeping ime.

kjmtidea

For my 4th son we got an Amby natures nest, it was amazing! My other 3 wouldn't sleep in their moses baskets but my youngest slept so well in the Amby and it was perfect for him because he had pretty bad reflux so he wasn't laying flat on his back. I would definitely recommened it

spendingmad

I liked the idea of having baby asleep with me downstairs early evening and taking them up with us at our bed time - especially in the early weeks. We bought a three-in-one pram with the traditional pram carrycot and used that as a moses basket (slightly larger so lasted long) he went straight from that into a cot. Also meant that during the day if I needed to pop out (walk the dogs/gets some milk etc) and could cover baby with a blanket, clip straight onto pram and be out without having to wake him up.

rachbc

i would def get something portable over a swinging crib - cot or moses basket so you can take baby u and downstairs etc. Having said that my dd hated hers and went into bedside cot at night a 3 days! till used the basket downstairs for daytime naps though

rach

we had a large moses basket and my long DS didn't grow out of it til he was almost 5 months! He has moved into his cotbed and into own room only a couple of weeks ago, mainly because cotbed won't fit in our room!

Bloomin_Freezing2

Both my Dd's were in the moses basket until they were 4/5 months. Personally I don't see the point in swinging cribs, you can't continue to swing them to sleep once they move into something bigger so why get them used to it in the first place? DD1 had her cotbed, then turned into a bed and a single size bed just before her 3rd b'day. DD2 is almost 2 and still has the sides on the cotbed. At the moment she hasn't got into climbing out so i'm liking the fact i can keep her where I want her for that little bit longer.

CL

The moses basket hood is good during the day when the baby is in the living room in case the sun is shining in through the living room. My baby is nearly 16 weeks and moved from the moses basket into her cot at about 8 weeks. She then slept in her bouncer during day time naps (she preferred it to the moses basket or carrycot from her pram. We never bothered with a crib. Her bouncer is the thing we have gotten most use from and she sat in it when awake from about 3 weeks old and still likes to sit in it. It is this one http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.207-8597.aspx we got it when it was double up on clubcard vouchers.