The cosleeper Dad built...

wrote in message
oups.com...

Jenrose wrote:
I'm so tickled by this...

Maybe this is what baby has been waiting for... "I can't be born yet,
I have nowhere to sleep!!"

Oh, I wouldn't have minded a few days with a newborn in the bed with me with
no rail--at that age they sleep in the crook of my arm, swaddled and aren't
"going anywhere". If this had *not* been in the works, we would have gotten
a bedrail already.

Jenrose

"Alley" wrote in message
...
I know... G Dad also built my laundry system,

what is that? do you have a pic? I could do with some organisation in my
laundry
Alissa


I don't have a picture right now (and am not going to take one because a.
it's not totally finished and b. it's full of messy laundry right
now...lol!)

But it's astonishingly simple (not as pretty as the cosleeper though).

Two units, side by side. Each unit is sized to easily fit two laundry
baskets end-in (so 24 inches deep by 3 feet wide, IIRC), with 4 shelves
spaced on my side to accept up to 8 laundry baskets and on dh's side to
accomodate his folded clothes on the top two shelves, two laundry baskets
for dirties on the 2nd shelf up from the floor, and shoes on the bottom
shelf.

So he just folds his laundry and stacks it on the shelves. I fold my laundry
and put it into "sorted" baskets... towels in one, underthings/socks in
another, shirts in another, pants in another. I have two "empty" slots for
unsorted clean laundry and the bottom two shelves are for dirty clothes
baskets.

It's made of melamine with pre-drilled peg holes, so most shelves are easily
changeable.

The advantage for me over what we had before?
First of all, I have a fair number of clothes... more of any given type than
will fit in one standard dresser drawer, and my dressers were *NOT*
standard. So I'd have four small drawers full of t-shirts, two medium
drawers full of pants, one full of shorts, two with socks, one with
underwear, two little ones with long sleeved shirts, etc... Laundry basket
is much bigger, but more efficient use of space overall.

Second, I don't seem to have trouble with getting laundry to the point of
clean, and usually get it folded...but getting it put away can sometimes be
a challenge, especially when the drawers were all full. And dh gets sorta
crazy when he's tripping over my clean laundry baskets, and has been known
to wash a basket of clean clothes on occasion.

So this was bowing to the reality of my life as a not-laundry-goddess. If
all else fails, I can put a basket in one of the slots "unsorted, unfolded,
but clean" and it's out of his way and we know it's not dirty clothes.

It takes up the entire wall, floor to almost ceiling (The space on top is
just big enough for those standard Rubbermaid totes that are so ubiquitous),
making that entire wall storage 2-feet-deep. What used to be there? A
dresser about 2 feet square and 6 feet tall, a stack of clean laundry in
various baskets, and a dresser my husband had clothes in but rarely used
(that got converted to "changing table" and moved) and served mostly as a
"catch point" for every bit of "I don't know where it goes" crap that came
into our bedroom.

We will be putting curtains across the front of it to make it look "tidy".
But compared to what we had before, it's a masterful work of organization.
We eliminated, with that, two dresser sets completely from the room, and
three from "our" usage (one ended up as the changing table, as I said.)

Jenrose

Jenrose writes:

: "Larry McMahan" wrote in message
: ...
: ...piggybacking because the original hasn't arrived yet...
:
: Jenrose,
: Can you please post a jpeg of the piece of furniture you describe.
: Multiple angles, maybe,
:
:
: Only have it from one angle right now, but will get multiples when baby is
: he

: http://www.jenrose.com/co-sleeper.jpg

Thanks, I'm having a hard time with the size, the height off the ground
and the size of the mattress. :-)

Larry

: Only have it from one angle right now, but will get multiples when baby
is
: he

: http://www.jenrose.com/co-sleeper.jpg

Thanks, I'm having a hard time with the size, the height off the ground
and the size of the mattress. :-)

Larry

Mattress: 18 x 36 (one standard cradle size, but we did a custom mattress
that Mom made, so the foam would be thicker.)
Height off ground at top of mattress: 28 inches (exactly the height of my
bed).

Overall dimensions: approximately 18 inches wide (probably a little wider
given the thickness of the rails) and 4 feet long. The extra "foot" is taken
up by the "bedside table" shelves at the top of the unit--I needed someplace
to put my lamp, CPAP, clock, phone, etc. and this has enclosed shelves for
the medium/small stuff and a top surface for the lamp.

The way we determined the measurements: I lay on my left side at the edge of
the bed. We measured from the wall to my shoulder, which was about 12
inches. Didn't need "bed" above my shoulder height. We measured from my
shoulder to my knee in my "comfort sleeping position"... which was close
enough that we rounded to 36 inches for ease of construction materials. We
measured from the floor to the top of the mattress, and used that as our
"overall" measurement for the height to the top of the mattress, then
figured we'd need 12-13 inches of "rail" above that. The rail is actually
about 18 inches high--the mattress is 5 inches thick, dense foam, so that
leaves 13 inches of rail above the mattress. The shelf unit at the head is
removable, in fact, the whole unit can be unscrewed, taken apart, and
rebuilt as a youth bed, though not a standard size one.

This is totally, 100% a co-sleeper...the rails are to prevent roll-off if I
have to get up to go pee (while dh is in the bed) so I don't have to move
baby in order to do so. I would not leave a child in it unattended--it does
not have a 4th rail option, nor are the sides tall enough to prevent an
unsupervised crawler/climber from getting out.

I did not want a standard crib as my sidecar because the bed's only about 6
feet long and the crib is 5 feet long or close to it, which is just WAY too
bulky (not to mention unnecessarily wide, etc.) I'd never be able to get in
and out of bed that way with our bed as high as it is right now.

Jenrose

Jenrose-
Can you wash the foam mattress? A friend of mine gave me a moses basket and
I would really like to wash the foam or replace it (which it seems like I'd
have to make one)

Kelly

"Jenrose" wrote in message
news:1110307079.d385963323be2596ff9b699e4bc1ea69@t eranews...

: Only have it from one angle right now, but will get multiples when baby
is
: he

: http://www.jenrose.com/co-sleeper.jpg

Thanks, I'm having a hard time with the size, the height off the ground
and the size of the mattress. :-)

Larry

Mattress: 18 x 36 (one standard cradle size, but we did a custom mattress
that Mom made, so the foam would be thicker.)
Height off ground at top of mattress: 28 inches (exactly the height of my
bed).

Overall dimensions: approximately 18 inches wide (probably a little wider
given the thickness of the rails) and 4 feet long. The extra "foot" is
taken up by the "bedside table" shelves at the top of the unit--I needed
someplace to put my lamp, CPAP, clock, phone, etc. and this has enclosed
shelves for the medium/small stuff and a top surface for the lamp.

The way we determined the measurements: I lay on my left side at the edge
of the bed. We measured from the wall to my shoulder, which was about 12
inches. Didn't need "bed" above my shoulder height. We measured from my
shoulder to my knee in my "comfort sleeping position"... which was close
enough that we rounded to 36 inches for ease of construction materials. We
measured from the floor to the top of the mattress, and used that as our
"overall" measurement for the height to the top of the mattress, then
figured we'd need 12-13 inches of "rail" above that. The rail is actually
about 18 inches high--the mattress is 5 inches thick, dense foam, so that
leaves 13 inches of rail above the mattress. The shelf unit at the head is
removable, in fact, the whole unit can be unscrewed, taken apart, and
rebuilt as a youth bed, though not a standard size one.

This is totally, 100% a co-sleeper...the rails are to prevent roll-off if
I have to get up to go pee (while dh is in the bed) so I don't have to
move baby in order to do so. I would not leave a child in it
unattended--it does not have a 4th rail option, nor are the sides tall
enough to prevent an unsupervised crawler/climber from getting out.

I did not want a standard crib as my sidecar because the bed's only about
6 feet long and the crib is 5 feet long or close to it, which is just WAY
too bulky (not to mention unnecessarily wide, etc.) I'd never be able to
get in and out of bed that way with our bed as high as it is right now.

Jenrose

"Jenrose" wrote in message
news:1110276644.a5527e43d49326e3d9c26b30b1b0bc8f@t eranews...

"Alley" wrote in message
...
I know... G Dad also built my laundry system,

what is that? do you have a pic? I could do with some organisation in my
laundry
Alissa


I don't have a picture right now (and am not going to take one because a.
it's not totally finished and b. it's full of messy laundry right
now...lol!)

But it's astonishingly simple (not as pretty as the cosleeper though).

Two units, side by side. Each unit is sized to easily fit two laundry
baskets end-in (so 24 inches deep by 3 feet wide, IIRC), with 4 shelves
spaced on my side to accept up to 8 laundry baskets and on dh's side to
accomodate his folded clothes on the top two shelves, two laundry baskets
for dirties on the 2nd shelf up from the floor, and shoes on the bottom
shelf.

So he just folds his laundry and stacks it on the shelves. I fold my
laundry and put it into "sorted" baskets... towels in one,
underthings/socks in another, shirts in another, pants in another. I have
two "empty" slots for unsorted clean laundry and the bottom two shelves
are for dirty clothes baskets.

It's made of melamine with pre-drilled peg holes, so most shelves are
easily changeable.

The advantage for me over what we had before?
First of all, I have a fair number of clothes... more of any given type
than will fit in one standard dresser drawer, and my dressers were *NOT*
standard. So I'd have four small drawers full of t-shirts, two medium
drawers full of pants, one full of shorts, two with socks, one with
underwear, two little ones with long sleeved shirts, etc... Laundry basket
is much bigger, but more efficient use of space overall.

Second, I don't seem to have trouble with getting laundry to the point of
clean, and usually get it folded...but getting it put away can sometimes
be a challenge, especially when the drawers were all full. And dh gets
sorta crazy when he's tripping over my clean laundry baskets, and has been
known to wash a basket of clean clothes on occasion.

So this was bowing to the reality of my life as a not-laundry-goddess. If
all else fails, I can put a basket in one of the slots "unsorted,
unfolded, but clean" and it's out of his way and we know it's not dirty
clothes.

It takes up the entire wall, floor to almost ceiling (The space on top is
just big enough for those standard Rubbermaid totes that are so
ubiquitous), making that entire wall storage 2-feet-deep. What used to be
there? A dresser about 2 feet square and 6 feet tall, a stack of clean
laundry in various baskets, and a dresser my husband had clothes in but
rarely used (that got converted to "changing table" and moved) and served
mostly as a "catch point" for every bit of "I don't know where it goes"
crap that came into our bedroom.

We will be putting curtains across the front of it to make it look "tidy".
But compared to what we had before, it's a masterful work of organization.
We eliminated, with that, two dresser sets completely from the room, and
three from "our" usage (one ended up as the changing table, as I said.)

Jenrose


So basically you've built and designed and entire wall sized unit using
laundry baskets as sliding drawers! Cool! I'd love to see a photo of it,
when you've got your clothes neatly organized... : )
--

Jamie
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"Tank you very much, momma."
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herself to standing while holding onto someone's fingers!

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So basically you've built and designed and entire wall sized unit using
laundry baskets as sliding drawers! Cool! I'd love to see a photo of it,
when you've got your clothes neatly organized... : )
--

'zactly. Much better than leaving piles of clean laundry in baskets for dh
to trip over and dump into the piles of dirty laundry that missed the
baskets.

Jenrose

"Kelly" wrote in message
...
Jenrose-
Can you wash the foam mattress? A friend of mine gave me a moses basket
and I would really like to wash the foam or replace it (which it seems
like I'd have to make one)


She covered it with baby vinyl, just like a regular crib mattress. Wipes
clean.

But you can buy replacement pads for Moses baskets online... just google
"Moses basket mattress" and see what pops up.

Jenrose

Will do to prevent mildew!

Kelly

"Jenrose" wrote in message
news:1110349363.d21de54f88bf63f0d2cab2ad657da843@t eranews...

"Kelly" wrote in message
...
Jenrose-
Can you wash the foam mattress? A friend of mine gave me a moses basket
and I would really like to wash the foam or replace it (which it seems
like I'd have to make one)


She covered it with baby vinyl, just like a regular crib mattress. Wipes
clean.

But you can buy replacement pads for Moses baskets online... just google
"Moses basket mattress" and see what pops up.

Jenrose

On Mon, 7 Mar 2005 17:41:34 +0900, "Anne Rogers"
wrote:

I want I want I WANT!

We managed quite nicely last time with the moses basket right next to the
bed, but the baby was lower than I was, so it wasn't quite so convenient, it
wouldn't be worth trying to do anythig different this time, we had the baby
in our room for about 4 months and I expect we will do similar again.

Not as nice as Jenrose's, but I have a (borrowed) Mothercare bedside
cot, which I love!

Megan
--
Seoras David Montgomery, 7th May 2003, 17 hours. http://seoras.farr-montgomery.com
DS2: Lachlan Alan, 28th February 2005