How to Make Your Bedside Crib Mobile

It’s no secret that bedside cribs and co-sleepers offer a host mind and body-boosting benefits, while helping the whole family get more restful nights of sleep. (Like making nighttime nursing easy and giving baby a healthy psychological and physiological development jumpstart — just to name a few of our faves!)

But you can enjoy an even bigger benefit boost by choosing a bedside co-sleeper that isn’t just safe and supportive for your little one, but is versatile as well. 

A baby in a mobile bedside bassinet | babybay bedside bassinets

Because when your bedside crib can easily transform into a portable bassinet, you have even more flexibility when it comes to choosing how you’ll nurture your baby during their sleeping and waking hours— while also making things easier on you. 

The Pros of Using a Portable Bassinet 

A portable bassinet, a bedside crib, a bedside co-sleeper: there are plenty of options out there when it comes to choosing a place for your baby to rest their head and catch some Z’s.

But when it comes time to choose which will work best for your family, finding one that matches your lifestyle needs — as well as the needs of your little one — is key. 

How to Make Your Bedside Crib Moveable 

Though some families might decide that choosing a baby co-sleeper that securely attaches to their own bed might offer everything they need, others may find that choosing a more moveable option (like a wooden bassinet or bedside crib) is better for them. 

For parents who have a nursery space that they’re hoping to move baby into when the time eventually comes to transition from co-sleeping, having a bassinet with wheels lets them roll baby back and forth between rooms, helping baby become well-accustomed to both. 

A bassinet with wheels also allows you to move your baby to new rooms in the house without waking them. 

Mother and baby rolling wooden bassinet with wheels | babybay Bedside Sleepers

This can be a much-needed feature for families who want to keep baby close throughout the day without needing to rely on a baby monitor, stock up on extra products, or feel confined to the bedroom to do it. 

Your Baby Bassinet Makes It Easier to Offer Comfort 

A baby bassinet for bed is also perfect for families who find that their baby prefers to be rocked or swayed to keep calm throughout the night. 

Without needing to leave the warmth of your covers, you can easily reach over and comfort your baby with a rocking motion by gently moving your baby’s portable bassinet back and forth. 

Meaning you’ll be able to keep resting, even as you give your little one the kind of comfort that lets them happily drift back to dreamland!

Take an inside peek at how one family made their babybay mobile with the bassinet conversion kit — and loves the flexibility it offers!

Your Wooden Bassinet Will Keep Your Baby Cocooned 

Your baby has just spent 9 months in the womb. And though they might be excited to have all the adventures the world has to offer, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t going to be a transition period when they experience a little discomfort while getting used to their new environment. 

Traditional cribs are big. And while this might sound like a good thing at first (it gives my baby plenty of room to grow, right??), having too much extra space can be disorienting for some babies. 

But when you convert your babybay co-sleeper, into a wooden bassinet, you’re able to enjoy all the advantages of a bassinet or crib —while making it easier for your baby to sleep happily in the more familiar and comforting embrace of a smaller sleeping space. 

All babybay co-sleepers (including ones that have been transformed into a portable bassinet) are artfully designed to mimic the half-moon embrace of a hug (a shape your baby will be all-too-familiar with after growing in the womb). 

So while your baby is soaking up all the new things the world has to offer, they’ll feel fully loved and embraced in comfort while doing it. 

Woman holding baby near bassinet on wheels | babybay bedside bassinets

How to Turn Your babybay Bedside Co-Sleeper Into a Portable Bassinet 

The bassinet conversion kit makes it easy to turn your babybay co sleeper into a bedside crib or wooden bassinet with wheels.

All it takes is a few minutes to install the guard rail, and you have a safe way to move your baby’s sleeping space around the house with ease. 

Your baby’s co-sleeper mattress is fully height-adjustable, which makes it easy to line up their sleeping space to the height of your own bed and reach over to care for them during the night without having to leave the comfort of your sheets.

And though our uniquely-designed guard rail is made to keep you comfortable as you care for your baby, that doesn’t mean that it’s not equally comfortable and safe for your little one!

They’ll feel snuggled in a sleeping space made-just-for-them, protected by a guard rail that will keep them safe through all sleeping and waking hours.

[Get a mobile babybay!]

How to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night (So You Sleep Better Too!)

Here’s a fast fact that may surprise you (or may not surprise you, depending on how many newborns you’ve cared for over the years): by the age of two, most children will have spent more time asleep than they’ve spent awake.

But as any parent of a newborn baby knows, figuring out how to help your baby sleep through the night can be a challenge. Because though your baby might love escaping to dreamland, that doesn’t mean they’re good at catching Z’s on your schedule. 

Luckily, there are a few tricks to put your baby to sleep that will help the whole family enjoy a better night of rest. Here are 4 of our sleep-giving favorites: 

Baby sleeping on side after mom recognized baby sleep cues | babybay bedside bassinet

1. Discover Baby Sleep Cues

When your baby is tired, they’ll tell you. 

Okay, it might not be quite that easy! But every baby has sleep cues that will clue you in that they’re in need of some rest. 

Catching these clues is key. Because when it comes to how to make baby sleep at night, things can get tricky when your baby skips over “tired” and heads straight toward “over-tired.” 

Though it might seem counterintuitive, it can be difficult to calm an over-tired baby down and settle into sleep. And by “difficult,” we mean 100% harder than if you catch your baby’s need for sleep right as it’s hitting the “I’m ready for bed” stage.

Not only is it often a challenge to put an over-tired baby to sleep, but over-tired babies can actually have a harder time staying asleep once they’ve finally closed their eyes.

Feeding will also become the last thing they want to do, often leading to a few more mid-night wake up calls than you want to take on as a sleepy parent. Which means both their sleep schedule and feed schedule could get disrupted when you miss their baby sleep cues, and yours could too.  

How to recognize your own baby’s sleep cues:

Baby sleep cues can vary from kiddo to kiddo.

But if your baby is yawning, acting over-quiet or over-calm, is seeming fussy, is rubbing their eyes, seems disinterested, or is less social than normal, it might be a sign that they’re ready for sleep. 

The most important thing is to start paying attention to your baby’s patterns and recognizing when changes in behavior are a sign it’s time for them to get rest. 

Helping your baby get proper amounts of sleep during the day will also help them be less over-tired at night, while more easily cluing you in to whether or not those changes in behavior are just a little late-day grumpiness…or a clear sign that it’s time to get cuddled up in their baby bed

2. Help Baby Sleep Through the Night With the Perfect Baby Bedtime Routine

During the first few months with your baby, it might feel like getting your baby to sleep at night is the top priority no matter what you have to do to make it happen. 

If you’re feeling in “sleep survival mode” while running on just a few short hours of shut-eye yourself, it can be easy to rely on rocking baby to sleep as a way of getting your little one to snooze as quickly as possible. 

Mother watching baby sleeping in wooden bedside bassinet | babybay bedside co-sleeper

However, these aren’t always sustainable ways of getting your baby to sleep at night. In the long run, your baby can become reliant on that pre-bedtime feed or pre-bedtime rock as a way of dropping off to dreamland. 

And while this works fine for some families and some babies, other parents discover that their sleep is more interrupted and harder to get when their baby has a nursing-to-sleep association or depends on being rocked to sleep. 

As your baby passes the 2-3 month mark, you’ll start to understand their sleep patterns better. 

Which is why this is a good time to find other ways to clue your baby in that it’s time to get some rest.

Consider putting together a bedtime routine that soothes your baby through gentle cuddling, snuggling, singing, or quiet reading. 

If you keep consistent about performing your chosen routine right before bedtime, your baby will begin to understand that these mean it’s time for them to get some sleep — so you can get some sleep too!

3. Get Baby to Sleep at Night By Helping Them Differentiate Between Day and Night 

When your baby is first born, they don’t really know the difference between day and night. (And for good reason! They’ve spent the last 9 months in the womb, after all.)

Baby getting sleep at night in babybay bedside co-sleeper | babybay bedside bassinets

They need to learn when the best time of day to rest is, and how to know when it’s time to be awake. 

(In technical terms: they need help developing a healthy circadian rhythm, which is the internal clock that helps us know when it’s time to sleep and when it’s time to be awake in the world).

One of the best tricks to get baby to sleep is to adapt their environment so that the difference between day and night is clear. 

Leave the windows open to let light in during the day, and keep these daytime hours as the most energetic and social ones you’ll spend with your baby. 

As the night comes, start to dim the lights, do calming activities like putting on light music, and hold off on giving your baby as much social time. 

Over time, your baby will start to understand that there are differences between night and day, while feeling more encouraged to be calm and restful during those dark and quiet nighttime hours. 

4. Use a Baby Co-Sleeper or Bedside Crib 

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends room sharing (or sleeping in the same room as your baby) for at least the first year of their life. 

And that’s for good reason: the AAP recognizes how important close contact (including skin-to-skin contact) is for helping your baby feel safe and secure. 

Baby getting sleep in a co sleeper bedside crib | babybay bassinetsThere are plenty of benefits that come from sleeping close to your baby with a baby co-sleeper or bedside crib.

In addition to giving your baby a feeling of nurturing support that lasts all night long (and keeps them happily drifting in dreamland for long, peaceful stretches of hours at a time), a baby co-sleeper can make nighttime nursing easier by helping you give baby what they need —without there being too much disruption to your own sleep.

And if your baby needs calming during the night, you’ll be able to offer them comfort and love without even needing to leave the bed. 

Meaning you’ll help baby sleep through the night — without having to disrupt your own rest to do it (which is a definite win-win!).