We loved co-sleeping and it was the only thing that worked for us. The (super expensive) crib sat alone until our baby was 7 months old. If I had to do it again, I'd wait to buy one.

We delayed purchase of a crib because of limited space in our apartment, and not seeing the need for one right away with a newborn. But more so, I hated the idea of our tiny tiny baby sleeping far away from us in a crib. At 5 months old, he's still sleeping in the Arm's Reach co-sleeper at night, and was until recently napping in a travel PNP downstairs during the day. He's outgrown the PNP so now he naps in the new crib downstairs (we don't want to transition to the crib just yet).

The co-sleeper is great for being able to soothe the baby without having to get out of bed, but I think a PNP can almost duplicate its function, so you could probably go with a PNP to save some money.

we co-slept with all three of our kids (using a co-sleeper for the most recent). i'd suggest skipping the crib altogether and putting a twin mattress on the floor of yours or you kid's (baby-proofed) room when you want to transition.

My best advice? Do what feels right for your family. For the first 4 months I used a bassinet in our room. I was far too deep a sleeper, and rolled around too much, to feel safe cosleeping. We bought the crib before she was even born, but I feel we could have easily delayed that purchase several months

Best wishes!!!

I used bassinet next to my bed for first 4-5 months. After that, my daughter was too big and needed to be in a crib. At that point, my husband and I wanted our room back. My daughter was fine with the adjustment after a week, and she is sleeping soundly through the night.

My two cents - I agree with your idea, get the cosleeper, and wait on the crib.

We rented a Baby Bunk cosleeper, but it won't stand alone as a crib like this one.

We loved our Arm's Reach Mini and our crib went unused until our daughter was 6 months old.

That said, a friend who is a really light sleeper had a son who was a really independent sleeper. He rarely fell asleep while being carried or held, but did fine when he was on his own. He was in his crib from day 1. So it does depend on you and your child.

I also used a bassinet and bought a crib at about 5 months... it worked well to wait... I never used a crib or play pen as a place to keep the baby contained....only for sleeping..I like "jsev" advice... have the room completely baby proofed so they have the freedom to explore once the baby is scooting around....

We've used an Arm's Reach co-sleeper since my daughter was born. She's now 6 1/2 months and still sleeps comfortably in it, as she does not yet pull herself into a seated position. We never did use the co-sleeping function of the bassinet actually, as I wanted to use my Anglecare movement monitor with her at night and I knew it wouldn't work properly if it was picking up movement from our bed. I am still happy with our Arm's Reach though because it is so much larger than a traditional bassinet but smaller than a PNP. Her crib is in her nursery and is mostly just housing her stuffed animal collection at this point.

our #2 is on the way and i'm not going to set up the crib this time. She and I will co-sleep in the guest room like I did last time. I'll set up a Pack N Play to use as a crib until she's 5-6 months for naps and things. You are not crazy to wait.

we used (and loved) the arm's reach mini co-sleeper until our son (at 4 months) outgrew it. we mean to transition him into the crib but somehow ended up with him in our bed. oops! whatever works!

I did not and do not co-sleep, but one thing I have always wondered is why you would not get a pack n' play rather than a "co-sleeper." I think a baby could sleep in one comfortably for a year, if not longer, and after that you can use it for travel. You can use the bassinet option in the beginning for easy access to the baby.

I had a crib and a pack n play. When my child was first brought home I got him used to sleeping in his crib and he was perftectly fine in his own room. Of course I was in there half the night!

I am due in December and will be using the Arm's Reach co-sleeper which I have already set up so that I can learn to maneuver around it at night. I really like the idea of the co-sleeper but was disappointed in the "mattress" that comes with it. Did anyone else have an issue with how creased the foam was and maybe a DIY solution?

We used a cradle next to our bed. When the baby turned 5 months we transitioned to a crib. It is really nice to have them close by in the early months and they seem snugger somehow in a smaller bed. You can totally wait but you might want to get it sooner rather than later so its ready when you are - I mean you'll need to at some point right?

With our first, we opted for the full-size Arm's Reach cosleeper because we wanted to be able to use it as a pack'n play option as well. We are now expecting #2 and plan on this babe staying in the cosleeper much longer than his sis. They will share a room eventually and his sis will continue to sleep in her crib as it changes to a toddler bed. The larger Arm's Reach cosleeper when set up like a pack'n play can hold kids up to 40 lbs. (I believe), so it can be used for quite awhile.

we use a cosleeper and i found you don't really need a crib until about 4 months or so... but i would recommend one. i found the transition to crib went smoothly and i think (but could easily be wrong!) it was because we would have our tiny guy nap in the crib after about 2 months. then he would go down for the night in the cosleeper next to the bed. we are doing the same with baby 2 due in march which means i am going to have to go buy another crib...! i think tiny will still be too tiny for a big boy bed. i think you also can't really tell how long you will want to have the baby in your room with you. we ended up putting the little guy in his own room LONG before i thought i would... that first night was the best night sleep any of us had in months! good luck and congrats!

oh, and about the cosleeper's mattress... they really don't notice. i swear! think about where babies will sleep... on you, the couch, in a car seat, etc. the mattress is just fine and in the early months you really want a super firm surface in order to cut down on YOUR sids worries. at least that was what i found.

Now the momma of a 4 month old, I wish I had put my crib purchase off for a bit. Don't get me wrong, I love our crib, and I would most likely pick the same one if I bought it now, but it was $40 cheaper 2 days after we bought it. I don't know what it is now though.

So yes, putting off your crib purchase until baby, or you, seem ready is a great idea. I think it'd be fun to look at cribs with baby!

Funny, I'm doing the opposite. I have a crib but am waiting til the baby's born to see if I want a co-sleeper or not.

Yes, our DD slept in the co-sleeper until she was 8 months. She slept next to our bed until she was about 5-6 months then across the room (we are in a 1BDRM in NYC) for a few more months. We should have moved her to a big crib sooner, but she certainly didn't seem to mind.

Our daughter slept in a cradle next to our bed for the first 6 months, then moved to her crib in her room. You can definitely delay the crib purchase if you want. I would be more fussed right now over the decision between a co-sleeper and a regular bassinet. I thought we might co-sleep before our daughter was born, but it turned out that none of us got a good night's sleep with her in our bed. She did best near us, but in her own space, and so a co-sleeper wouldn't have been great for us.

She is now 2, and sleeps in her own bed 90% of the time. We do keep a pack 'n play in our room, though, and she likes to sleep in there if she wakes up with a nightmare, or whatever. Our pack 'n play has both a bassinet and a play pen/crib mode, so I think it would've served fine as her bassinet for her first 4 months or so--we did use it that way for travel, sometimes--we just liked having a prettier wooden one at home for regular use.

I have three little ones and have used a variety of different methods. We used the Arm's Reach classic co-sleeper with all three and liked it very much. When they outgrow the bassinet part you can just let them sleep in the playpen arrangement. It works great. If you have room, though, you might consider getting and setting up a crib in the baby's room for naps. I did this with my first and the transition to her own room/crib for night sleep, around 6 months, was seamless. My second and third (twins) spent less time sleeping in their cribs early on and it took longer for them to get comfortable with it. I have friends who did not start using a crib early and had a very difficult time with the transition - many of whom are still trying to get their 4, 5, and 6 year olds out of their room at night.

Just to make things a bit clearer, co-sleeping means sharing a ROOM and bed-sharing means sharing a bed. It seems a number of people are confused about this. We also shared a bed with our son and then transitioned him to a twin mattress on the floor. We never had any problems with it until he was over 2 (now he realizes he can climb out by himself). Of course, now is the time we would transition him to a toddler bed anyway. I think you could easily avoid the crib altogether, even if you didn't bed-share or co-sleep. Some friends of ours were unable to co-sleep because their daughter is such a noisy wiggly sleeper. Like many of the comments you'll have to feel it out when your little one arrives. Skip the crib, get a bassinet/co-sleeper and decide a few months after s/he is born. Good luck!

I agree-every family is unique in regards to what they are comfortable with. My son (now 2.5) has always been a light sleeper and needed to be in his own room with white noise and no distractions. The first few weeks we slept in the guest room (next door to his nursery) and used a bassinet. After a few weeks we transitioned him to his crib and we stayed in the guest room for awhile just to be near (the master bedroom is across the house). So really, we are the ones that did most of the transitioning to new environments. It worked for us! Now he's in a twin bed with rails and is doing great!

We bought a nice crib and the nursery was finished completely by baby's arrival, but she has yet to spend a night in there, and she will be 10 months old this week! Her bedroom is on a different floor from ours and I just can't bring myself to move her out.

We're using the arms reach mini co-sleeper and love it. We're not going to get a crib at all - my baby's room has a twin mattress on the floor, and she'll sleep there (again, totally baby-proofed room) when she outgrows the co-sleeper.

Do whatever works for you... I tried to minimize baby gear purchases, so we used the bassinet attachment on our Pack N Play, and it was a foot from my bed. Super easy, and I didn't have to buy an extra piece of equipment. Anything that's tiny like the standard co-sleeper or a traditional bassinet doesn't last for very many months!

We didn't order my daughter's crib until she was about 5 months old and started to approach the weight limit for the bassinet on the Pack-n-Play we kept next to my side of the bed. She slept well (well as much -or should I say little- as she slept) in the Pack-n-Play until then, and it also gave us extra time to get her room set up which up until then was my home office.

Get a cosleeper. It is nice to have the baby right there and it helps with nursing. Much easier to grab the baby rather than get out of bed. You can find cosleepers on Craigs List all the time gently used. We bought an organic latex matress insert with our second. That matress is hard as a rock.

But mostly, we bedshared. It was just easier.

More comfortable than a pack n play which isn't comfortable at all and isn't considered a safe alternative for some reason, can't remember. Other sleep choices, like swings and especially car seats, are also poor choices because of the development of the spine.

We bought an Arm's Reach co-sleeper for our bedroom and set up my old crib in the baby room that had never been used - my family growing up shared a bed. The co-sleeper worked great as an expensive portable bassinet when I took a shower, but after two nights we had the baby in bed with us. There he remains, two years later, and the whole family is very happy with this arrangement. We recently packed the unused crib away and set up a big-boy bed for the little guy, where he will transition when he is ready.

I totally think that you should wait to purchase the crib...you'll likely end up needing one (most people use one) but it is in no way necessary until the baby is older. Or like in our case, we just decided to do the family bed thing as we went along and never used the crib. The Arm's Reach is a nice product, folds up small, etc, but I would look on Craigslist for a used one because they are rather expensive. And they are the sort of thing that really work well for some and not others, so I'll bet there are a ton of gently used ones out there. Ditto with cribs, come to think of it.

i LOVE our co sleeper - we got it for our third baby and I wish I had had it with our first two. we will not be using our crib for several months!

While I co-slept with my daughter from 0-2 months and then again from 15-18 months, we used the Amer's Reach co-sleeper as a free-standing bassinet for her bed. We bought a crib, and it sits in her room and looks lovely, but all it does is act as a rack for my wet clothes. We also had a pack n play but that was a bit of a joke considering the top portion was only good for up to 15 lbs, and the play pen configure was noisy and uncomfortable (we heard every move she made in that thing).

Honestly, the best advice I can give is to buy the Arm's Reach full size co-sleeper and use it until you find a need to get something else. You may love it for three months, you may love it for two years.

Why not just get a crib and put it right next to your bed if there's room? My daughter slept in a pack 'n play beside our bed for 5 months and then moved to a crib in her own room. She's still there at age 3.5. The advantage of the pack 'n play beside the bed rather than a co-sleeper is that you use the pack 'n play for travel until they're 2 or 3.

The Arm's Reach Mini is great but I will say I loved having my daughter's crib set up in her room from the beginning. I had a beautiful mobil hanging above it and found putting her in the crib during the day served a dual purpose: it gave me 15-20 minutes of freedom and also got her used to her room. She did not nap in her crib until 6 months, but having the option of putting her down someplace other than the swing was great.

Our #1 slept in a Pack'n'Play until he moved to a twin bed. We didn't really have the money or space for a crib. Then our #2 slept in a cute, plain mini-crib (also called a portable crib) made by Cosco which was my favorite baby purchase ever.

http://www.amazon.com/Cosco-10-T58-WHO-Portable-Crib-White/dp/B000056HND

Of course, I got in on Craigslist for $20 (basically unused) which helped that.

Now she is 2 and sleeping in a twin bed as well. The potential downside of using a smaller crib or PnP is that they grow out of them sooner than they would out of a traditional crib.

We want to have a third and now that we have the space I think I might like a big, real crib. But I doubt I'll have the money then either! :)

I used the Pack'n'Play for both babies' naps and to put the baby in while I showered. And it's great for traveling too of course, especially to have them used to sleeping in it already, which helps in a strange place.

good luck :)

guess I should have made that into a link, sorry.

Cosco Portable Crib

Meh, the whole crib thing is a pretty American idea.

We didn't get one, especially after hearing about all our friends' cribs, which are lovely and expensive laundry baskets, pretty much.

Our baby sleeps with us. She's got a twin mattress on the floor in her room for naps and will transition there for night sleeping when we're all ready.

I should add that we've always felt that if we decide we need a crib, there's a Target five minutes away and a Babies R Us 45 minutes away. So it's useless to spend the money when we could buy one and have it set up the same day IF we need it.

Our 7-week old sleeps in a pack-n-play next to our bed. Sometimes we bed-share as well. I really wanted to get an Arm's Reach but the only ones that might have worked with our platform bed are the sleigh bed model and the universal model, both of which are much more expensive than the regular or mini versions and are rarely available used on craigslist around here.

We ended up with the Bright Starts Ingenuity pack-n-play which has worked out nicely. She sleeps well in it, and it is just a couple of feet from the bed so I can sit up and look in on her if I need to. The bassinet part has the option of an inclined surface which is great if your baby has reflux.

If you're interested in the Arm's Reach and don't have a traditional box-spring and mattress bed, check out the measurements and heights very carefully since some of their products might not work for you.

She does have a crib in her room, and so far she's just had a few naps in there. We definitely could have waited on it if we needed to.

we used a really ugly bassinet that was a hand me down (free!) for about the first 6 weeks or so and slept(as much as you can with a newborn!) downstairs on couches/air mattresses with the hubs. as soon as we didn't need it anymore we passed it on down! now if i would've spent lotsa money on one i would have felt the need to hold on to it. YAY for free ugly stuff!

at our one month check up our doc told us to put baby to sleep when she was awake but sleepy. duh! i wonder how i never read that anywhere while pregnant! worked the first time we did it and she has been sleeping in her crib ever since (at about one month)! we prefer her sleeping in the crib (with the humidifier on full blast) so that we can be on the floor level of our townhouse eating, watching tv, doing laundry, etc without disturbing her during naps. our crib was a hand me down too. as long as you check for recalls/safety hazards i would recommend holding off on spending over $100 on something that a baby won't be using and abusing much in the first year and get a crib from a friend or family member or from a consignment shop and then investing in a good sturdy quality one later that you will be able to get a lot of use out of. i can't imagine getting anything other than a convertible as well.

we have a PNP, but we only use it during travel. it is very useful and easy to assemble/disassemble, and we got it as a gift so no money spent there as well!

there's so many factors and as many posters have said it's up to you and your childs needs.

We postponed a crib as we planned to co-sleep for the first few weeks/months...and I'm glad we did, as we ended up liking co-sleeping much more and for much longer than we anticipated.

Our daughter didn't start sleeping in her own bed until 16 months old, at which point she slept in a "big girl" bed.

You don't know what's going to work for your family until you try, so delaying ANY baby purchase until you need it is a good decision in my experience.

We were going to postpone buying a crib, but then there was a sale so we got one. However, we also got a bassinet that stays next to our bed (I suppose that's a "co-sleeper"), that our daughter used until she was too big for it.

I'd recommend a co-sleeper.

I think it's easier to have something you know you're going to need eventually all set up rather than deal with it when you have a tiny baby. Putting together a crib is tough enough!

We used our cosleeper for 6 months with both our kids before moving them into a crib. If you don't have a lot of space, wait until you really need it.

We loved ours. We used it exclusively til 10 months when we got a real crib and then we use it camping and when we travel. :) One of the best baby buys

I also used a co-sleeper for 4 months with my son. He then began to move a lot in his sleep, and we would wake each other up every hour, so we moved him to his crib and in his room. I'm happy to say that he started sleeping 12 hours a night at 5 months ! He is 7 months old now, and hasn't stopped (let's hope it goes on !).

In my opinion, co-sleeping does only make sense if you are breastfeeding. Otherwise, you are going to get up anyway, so it's no use.

However, I would recommend buying a crib as soon as possible. Since you will end up using it anyway, you'd better assemble it as soon as possible, to make it vent VOC and other toxic substances while your child does not sleep in it. We chose the Ikea Gulliwhatever, and assembled it while I was only 8 months pregnant to get rid of those toxic fumes.

We bought our co-sleeper used. I have seen them for as little as $15 since they are outgrown relatively quickly. (on the same note, you can find free or almost free exersaucers with only a tiny bit of work).

i would not want to put a crib together while trying to take care of a five month old baby. some days just to get your self a shower your doing great!

We used a co-sleeper (Arm's Reach) we borrowed from a friend and a bassinet that was handed down to us. It wasn't until baby outgrew the cosleeper (around 4 months) that we bought a crib. We went with the Ikea Gulliver and used it as a cosleeper with the side removed next to our bed. We still have the same set-up (he's 27 months now), but he goes to sleep in his own bed (a regular twin) in his own room. If he wakes up in the middle of the night, he spends the rest of the night in his side-carred crib with us.
For any future babies, we'll skip the co-sleeper part and go for the Gulliver right from the start, simply because we now have it.
I'd delay all huge purchases until your baby has arrived and you know what will work for you. Some babies (like mine) want to sleep close-by and definitely NOT alone. Other babies seem to enjoy the peace and quiet of a dark room... you won't know until your little one arrives.
Happy sleeping!

We lucked into a lovely hand-me-down crib, and thank goodness, because the little one is nearly nine months old and never had so much as a nap in it. We didn't buy a co-sleeper, and we didn't plan to bed share, but it's what worked best for us by far. We're gradually transitioning her into sleeping in her (babyproofed) room, but she wanted nothing to do with the crib, so we packed it away and put the mattress on the floor. That way we can cuddle her to sleep, which we all love. None of this was what we expected, but so much of parenting has proven to diverge from any "plan" we had. I would tell any new parent to keep your mind open to the unexpected and keep your purchasing to the absolute basics until you meet your little one.

I just wanted to ad a kudos for all the commenters here. There is so much judgmental hubub about infant sleeping arrangements on the great wide interweb. It was nice to read so many supportive, "do what works for you," comments.

We have a 7 month old and I do really wish we had put off our crib purchase. We had a Seed Cradle in our room for the first 6 months and now that I'm back at work, we ended up co-sleeping. The crib is sitting in the nursery downstairs unused 95% of the time. I think by the time we'll want to use it, we'll end up converting it to a toddler bed. In retrospect, we could have just skipped it and gone straight to a bed.

Due to living in a very small house we used a mini co sleeper until our first could climb out. Then we moved him to a portable crib which lasted him until he moved to a toddler bed. We have since moved to a larger home but we have done the same with our second. The full size crib we were given is still in the box. I plan on doing the same if we have a third. The co sleeper has traveled with us a few times and has held up well. Possibly the best baby item we purchased.

We definitely wasted a lot of money on a crib that my son NEVER slept in. He is thirteen months old and now sleeps in his own bed. I would wait and see how it goes. You will know what works best for your sweet baby after you get to know each other.
Congratulations!

Just like the majority who posted, we delayed buying a crib until our first was 7 months old. We had a mini co-sleeper, but rarely used it for anything but naps. Both our children have slept in our bed until they could crawl, then moved to the crib. The mini co-sleeper was nice to have, but a pack-n-play with an infant attachment works almost the same, plus it can be used much longer than the co-sleeper.

I'm pregnant with #3 now, and plan to bed-share, then use the pack-n-play until the baby is old enough for a crib.

We are trying to decide a similar thing. I know it is maybe expensive, but I've been looking at the Bam bassinet/crib...starting in our room and then moving to the nursery as a crib. Anyone have thoughts on this?

http://www.amazon.com/Argington-Organic-Crib-Bassinet-White/dp/B002NU50FU</a href>

I bought a Sniglar crib from IKEA and put it together as a toddler bed (one long side off and replaced with just a board to hold it steady). The hight of the mattress is determined by 4 relatively shallow holes drilled into the frame where the bolts sit so I drilled new ones at the right high so the top of the mattress was the same hight as the mattress in my bed. That way I could pull the girls (I have twins) into bed with me or move them into the crib without a hassle. I loved co-sleeping with the girls but there wasn't room in our queen for the hubby, me, and two babies without it getting really crowded.

At 3 months we wanted to ween them off night feeding so we just put the side back on, moved the mattress to the tallest setting and moved the crib across the room. (Don't be fooled, I still wind up with at least one girl in bed with me most nights but they do sleep the first part of the night and most naps in the crib.)

I waited until the very last minute to by the crib. for the first few weeks my twins slept in their car seats because they often feel asleep right after feeding and I wanted them to sleep reclined to reduce spit-up. It also made them easy to move with disturbing them.

Lani - the Argington bassinet looks really cute, but if you're looking to co-sleep I'd recommend the Arm's Reach (though not as aesthetically appealing) for a few reasons:
1 - it attaches to the side of the bed and acts as a "sidecar" to your mattress. So for middle-of-the-night feedings you can scoop baby onto you and deposit him/her back into the co-sleeper with one arm (which is especially great if you've had a c-section)
2 - the fourth side can be pulled up and it turns into a stand-alone crib which is good for travel
3 - if you get the "convertible" model you can also use it as a playard even when baby is no longer using it for sleeping
4 - you can purchase the organic mattress for the Arm's Reach (plusher than the standard mattress it comes with) and still come out ahead of the Bam pricewise

Our baby girl was in a bassinet in our room at first, we switched to a crib in the nursery at about 3 months. We didn't have a crib until then.

if you're planning on using the crib at all (although i do like the pack'n'play & twin mattress ideas) it might be a good idea to go ahead and pick it out before they're born.

superficial reason: its a large part of your decor/design and for me nesting is a huge part of pregancy
realistic reason: do you want to go big ticket item shopping sleep deprived with a baby on your hip?