Comments on: Co-sleeping

By: J Beaumont

J Beaumont — Sat, 09 May 2009 18:23:19 +0000

We were not planning on co-sleeping at all, as I was very worried about the dangers that could happen to your baby. But after of only a few nights of feeding, putting baby down, her screaming, so feeding to calm her down, putting her down, baby screaming etc etc all night, I accidently doozed with her on my chest!!!
From that night on, we’d manage to get her into her mosses basket from her 10.30 (ish) feed (expressed bottle via daddy), but then when she woke up for her next feed, she’d stay in bed with us (and still does)!!
She also sleeps on her side, with her head on my arm, which recently someone told me could result in a young baby’s lungs collapsing (another thing to feel bad about)!!!
I find that we sleep lightly with her in the bed, but it’s better than no sleep at all, and the duvet comes upto her chest (arms over the top)!!!
Thanks for bringing this up, and stopping mums like us feeling bad … we have to do what we have to do for our babies … they’re all different!!

By: Kat

Kat — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 20:13:45 +0000

We kept our duvet for the winter months, but Rowan was always on top of the covers, which I pulled across my body away from him so the top of my “feeding side” was exposed. I got cold at times, and I think I used a blanket (probably one of his cot ones) to cover the gap. Wearing nice thick PJs helps too. If your baby is well below the line of the duvet, he’ll be fine. You can then dress him according to the temperature (bearing in mind that he’ll be warmer snuggled up next to you. In this weather I think he would just have had a babygro and vest, and perhaps a light blanket

When it got warm we moved to a sheet and a king sized cellular blanket (much like a cot blanket) but I think Rowan ended up on top of it more often than not.

Rowan slept on his side most of the time, then when I was awake to unlatch him I would roll him onto his back (when he let me). Its been a while since I did the reading but I think the fact that they can’t accidently roll onto their front, and the reduced risks from being so close to the parent makes this ok.

The best thing you can do is have a read of Three in a Bed by Deborah Jackson. Its an excellent book and explains some of the reasons that co-sleeping is not advised by health professionals.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Bed-Benefits-Sleeping-Your/dp/0747565759/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240602377&sr=8-1

You’re much safer with him carefully in your bed than falling asleep precariously sitting up.

Just for your information, co-sleeping never really worked out for us long term. Initially we struggled because he suffered from wind and needed burping during the night – and when that didn’t happen he woke up screaming. While Rowan was feeding a lot, it was better than putting him down, but as he got older he didn’t sleep well in with us, so we abandoned it in the end (although we went back to it when he was quite ill around the age of 1)

He’s now, at 15 months, very happy to sleep in his own bed (we moved him to a toddler bed because he never liked his cot).

By: fiona

fiona — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:38:07 +0000

I’m currently contemplating co-sleeping. My 10 week old son will go down in his crib for the first part of his nights sleep, but will not/cannot go down after his first night feed – he never seems to reach the ‘floppy’ stage when I know he’s asleep enough to go into his own crib. I therefore end up falling asleep with him on my chest whilst trying to rock him back to sleep and then spend a fitful night half sitting up half lying down with him on my chest.

My anxieties about co-sleeping mostly concern bedding. I’m not sure whether to ditch my divet and replace with a sheet and blanket, or whether to change to a lighter tog, or whether to cover me and ant not him – but how?! Also one of the reasons he seems to struggle to get back to sleep is a difficulty lying on his back – is it safe to co-sleep cuddling him into you i.e. both of you on your sides facing one another?

It’s so difficult as there’s no-one to ask these questions of as hv’s are still saying it’s unsafe despite evidence to the contrary.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.