Sidecar crib to our bed (how we did it).

UPDATE: I'd like to let everyone know now that we actually tried this out - it REALLY isn't worth the trouble we went through - either get a FULL size crib (not sure how well that will work either) or just use the actual "Co-sleeper" brand bassinet for next to the bed - would have saved us trouble because guess where our baby is now??? In a pack n play next to our bed whenever she's totally "out" - then I scoop her up to nurse at night :)

This has been one big project for us but we hope it will pay off in the end enabling us to co-sleep with our new baby and yet have a sort of extension of our bed so we all have enough space.

This is just how WE ended up solving our arrangement.

This is no ordinary sidecar bed attempt! First - we are using a "mini" crib instead of a standard size. If we could have - we'd have used a standard size and skipped these first few steps! But in our case we just don't have the space so we bought a mini crib.

Second: We have a foam mattress with a foam topper. We'd like to have a firm mattress but this is what we have and can't afford a new one yet. So there are a few special things we did just because of the nature of this type of mattress (getting it level, secure, staying in place, no gaps, etc.).


My husband constructed a base to raise it up (since it is shorter than an ordinary crib). He used 4 cinder blocks (one under each crib leg) and ply-wood - he screwed the wood pieces together - the bricks will NOT come apart.
























We moved my night stand from the head of our bed to the foot, up against the side of the crib.
























My husband took off the front of the crib and stabilized the bottom with the top bar. We needed to get the 3 inch crib mattress level with ours so we used a thin crib pad, blankets and pool noodles to get the mattress level. Crib is on lowest setting I think. The next setting up would be too high but this was too low. (side note: I wish we could have found a 6" mattress for this crib that was not full of toxins - the 3" was the less toxic option in our budget we found so we worked with it.)

















My husband made this nifty little contraption here and placed it at the back of the crib. The bungee cords hook under the 3" mattress and go across under our mattress topper (over mattress).












































Then the bungee cords hook up to another set which hook up to two more "contraptions" on the other side of our bed. And (shown above, not below) - we put a pool noodle between the mattress topper and the boards - the stupid topper otherwise would be shifty but this seems to do the trick to keep it in place.


















Forgot to mention that before the bungee cord step first came the step where we used tie-downs to anchor the crib itself to our solid wood bed frame. The crib is NOT going to separate from our bed. I checked - I can't even move the crib at ALL!






























My pictures are slightly out of order. The next step was putting our fitted sheet (cream color) on our bed - this covered and sort of secured the boards ("contraptions) at the edge of our bed. Then I put a pool noodle between the mattress topper and the 3" crib mattress.

I found a King size (our bed is queen) quilted coverlet on clearance (green) to use for this - as I did have to cut/tailor it for this. I used white biased tape sewn on the edges where I cut so it won't fray.
























































Then we put a flat sheet on our bed and tucked it in as a fitted/bottom sheet. Then our usual top flat and coverlet. Then I took a regular size fitted crib sheet and put that over the 3" crib mattress and cut the elastic edges off the half closest to our bed (because fitted won't tuck).








































































There is one more thing I'm going to do but just haven't yet: Get a KING flat sheet (to use in place of our fitted - it will tuck in better and stay in place better) and sew the edge of that to the edge of the crib sheet so they are "one", so it is seamless across from our bed to crib.

And that is how we ended up doing this!!

Again - it would be SO much more simple if our mattress was regular (firm), no topper and if we had the space for a regular size crib and mattress!!! I'm just glad we got this to the point that it is. It is not recommended for babies to sleep on soft surfaces like our mattress topper - that is partly another reason why we wanted baby to have his/her own "space" on the more firm crib mattress when he/she is not nursing or being held/sleeping right next to mommy. The coverlet quilt helps too for when baby is nursing or sleeping right next to mommy.