Home Made Bed Bumpers
I've seen the sites selling the Humanity Bed to help make co-sleeping safer. I'd love to have one, but just can't afford that! The following is what my mother and I came up with as an inexpensive solution to keeping a small baby from rolling out of the bed.
For the Cover:
Purchase a fabric of your choice. 60 inch wide would be ideal, but 45 inch wide will work too. The length will depend on the size of your bed. I purchased 4 yards of fabric for use with an Olympic-Queen sized bed. Be sure that you choose a soft fabric! Remember - you and your child will be sleeping on this! Pre-wash in case of shrinkage.
For the Bumper:
Here you have two choices. At first I had taken a thick fleece blanket and rolled it tightly to use as the bumper. Then my mother and I came across another way - Purchase a Jumbo Noodle (the bigger size of the foam "noodles" that are sold at stores like WalMart for kids to use in the pool). These are the perfect length to use with 60 inch fabric and slide into the cover more easily than rolled fabric or pillows. It also cleans easier!
How To:
If desired hem or surge one end and the selvage edges if necessary. Measure the circumference of you bumper stuffing. ( The Jumbo Noodle is almost 14 inches around. ) Mark a line on your fabric this distance plus one inch (for seam allowances) from the unhemmed edge of your cloth. Fold the unhemmed edge to this line. Pin and stitch close to the edges. Now all you need to do is slide your bumper into the fabric and lay your bumper on the bed. I like to tuck the non-bumper side under the mattress to help keep it all in place.
TIPS
You may want to lay a waterproof crib cover over the area of the bed where your baby will be sleeping. This is good to catch milk leakage and diaper leakage. The advantage is that the crib protector will be the only item that will need to be washed and you won't have to take your bumper apart!
You can also create the pocket for the bumper so that there is excess fabric on both sides to tuck under the bed. I altered my original bumper in ths manner and this is how it is shown in the pictures.
|
|
