Do you need a bassinette & a cot?

Nope, you do not need a bassinet...but they look cute.

Actually one thing I think I would get if I did this again would be a moses basket. I'd be interested to hear other's thoughts on this

I wasn't going to get a bassinet, was going to put baby straight into a cot, but got a lot of pressure from my family about it being easier to have baby in with dp and I for the first few months so we've now decided to get a bassinet as the cot won't fit in our room with our bed.

Bare in mind some babies don't like bassinets, my mum has told me that I used to scream and cry when ever I was put in it or near it but as soon as I was placed in a cot I would stop.

Definately don't have a big bedroom, but the "nursery" is right next to ours, so we'll be sweet.

Thanks for the info

We went straight into a cot and had no problems. For piece of mind though we have an Angel Care monitor and he is in the room right next to us.

ETA Spelling

Edited by rianna08

We dont have a bassinet and are planning to use the cot straight away. We do have a Qunniy buggy with a bassinet top which people do use for baby to sleep in so we could use that but wont be buying a seperate bassinet.

We have two bassinets, and the girls are still in them now. One was bought for DH's Grandma when she had FIL, and has been used for the whole family, and the second one is one that FIL made to match the first one. We never had the girls in our room though, they wouldn't fit and we would never have got any sleep with the grunting, snoring, snuffling and other little noises they make all night!!

We will be transitioning into the cots very soon though...

have a look on trademe. I bought our cot there..its a touchwood and cost me $300...then I bought a new mattress. It is lovely and its nice that its done more kids. I also bought our bassinet (a cariboo one with a beautiful muslin drapey thing over the top (the word for it has gone)) and that was only $80!!

I would NEVER buy brand new...but always buy new mattress.

I found only having a cot was fine, he was wrapped and was fine, although he looked so tiny in the big cot.

I had the cariboo gentle motions bassinet in her cot in the lounge (1bedroom unit) I would stumble to the cot half awake feed then stumble back to bed. We also had a spare bed right next to the cot so we could cuddle on there, although I did end up bringing her into our bed most of the time.

Even for cot sheets, I only have one proper set, I use single sheets short sheeted for her in the cot. This was partly because even single sheets from kmart and the warehouse were so damn expensive!

We used a moses basket at first and the cot from about three months.

We were lucky that the cot could fit in our bedroom at first and Joseph staying in our room until he was eight months old. We only moved him then because he learned to sit up on his own and since we then had to take the cot apart to lower the cot base we also moved it to his nursery.

The moses basket was great for the first three months but to be honest he would have been just as happy in the cot right from the start.

My parents bought the same cot so he wouldn't feel too unsettled when he stayed at their house and so he was used to it there.

The moses basket was handy for having downstairs though, somewhere to put him down safely, he could sleep nearby when I was doing housework, so I'd still recommend one even if you do go straight for a cot in either your room or the babies room.

When we were using the moses basket upstairs and downstairs though I could have done with two. It's not easy carrying a sleeping baby up and down the stairs with a moses basket and stand.

As for sheets, we used pillowcases over the moses basket mattress because they fitted over it nicely and for any spits and sicks you could wipe the mess off and then turn the mattress over for the clean and dry side of the pillowcase. Saved changing sheets every single time (and we usually had three or four messy incidents a night at first, so just two pillowcases rather than four sheets.) Our midwife suggested it.

In an emergency though I've used tablecloths as cot bed sheets, single bed sheets, soft towels, anything will do in an emergency.

When Joseph went to the cot from the moses basket we started using the sleeping bags but from about seven months old he's had sheets and blankets. We are told not to use baby duvets until they are a year old but I don't think Joseph would stay under one anyway, he wriggles too much.