I did a lot of searching to find the perfect place for Blake to sleep for the first few months of his life. He has a crib in a big room all nicely decorated just for him, but it’s downstairs. Since Stefen & I sleep upstairs I want him to be close to us–at least for awhile–especially since I love my sleep so much. The thought of having to go in another room, let alone downstairs, every couple hours to feed him?! hah.
I’ve seen a lot of these co-sleeper bassinets and although they are really nice, the price isn’t. So, I searched for a “DIY” co-sleeper and came across a couple different blogs that we used as guidelines to make our own! inspiration #1 inspiration #2
After a few weeks (or maybe months) of nicely begging the men in my family to make this for me, Stefen & Luke finally said yes and set aside a day to make it. Well, Luke said yes. Stefen didn’t really have much of a choice in the matter.
They used the dimensions from “#1” just in case Blake is extra long he will have room to grow in it. As far as following the directions, there wasn’t much for them to follow. Not to downplay what an awesome job they did or anything, but, it was a much easier project than those blogs made it seem. One of them said it took 40 hours and the other one said 7 hours. It only took Stefen & Luke 2 hours max. After they finished, Stefen & I applied a coat of stain + polyurethane and let it dry in the sun for a day.
For the mattress: I was going to buy foam and make my own like the bloggers mentioned, but fortunately my Aunt gave me a changing table with two mattresses and one of them was the exact size I needed for the bed!
My Favorite Things About this DIY Co-sleeper:
- Blake will be as close to me as he can be without being in our bed, which will make those middle of the night feedings much easier! I mean, I will practically just be able to roll over and feed him in my sleep. *side note: I’m not against co sleeping in the same bed. For my own personal self, though, I am way too deep of a sleeper to want to worry about having a tiny baby next to me, and/or losing sleep because of it.*
- It’s wooden and matches our room nicely.
- It takes up the least amount of space compared to having a bassinet or play pen next to the bed. Our walls are slanted which makes the space next to our bed limited.
- My Dad had the great idea that after Blake graduates from this bed into his own room it will make a nice table for Stefen to bring me breakfast in bed. I agree.
2 responses to “DIY Co-Sleeper”
How clever. Guessing it will be secured permanently to the bed so it won’t have any chance of slipping or falling. We are soooo excited to see you, Stefen and Blake!
Brilliant! Let me know how it works out.