Am I creating a bad habit?

[Twinklestar2]

I have a 12 week old boy. He usually gets up at 7.30 in the morning. Sometimes when I'm really tired I put him in bed next to me and breastfeed him and he then sleeps for another 2 hours. If I try and move away he wakes up so I lie there and doze with my boob in his mouth.

Is this ok or am I creating a bad habit? Sometimes we get up for the day and then go back to bed an hour later and do this.

I can guarantee he'll have his morning nap if I do this and he's a much happier child in the day because of it. I don't feel like I have to constantly try and get him to sleep cause he's only had a short nap in the morning.

What do you think?

[Fevertree]

I think whatever works for you at this age! 12 weeks is still so little. Enjoy your morning snuggles x

[TaurielTest]

I think it sounds idyllic :)

[Gen35]

Personally if you're both getting more sleep I wouldn't worry, you can always change things later. I find co-sleeping like this by far the easiest way to get my 4 wk old to sleep, she doesn't go to sleep on her own. Some of the books I've read say you should try and keep them awake in the day after feeding but I've found that hard to do when they want to sleep.

[ghostvitruvius]

Sounds ideal to me.

[Twickersmum76]

Hi Twinklestar2. obviously every baby is different so i can only speak from my experience but i was doing this and it created a nightmare for me in month 4. My DD hit 'sleep regression' around then, waking every hour and as she could only fall back asleep through nursing. My advice would be to get up then put him down for a morning nap 2 hours later and teach him to fall asleep on his own. I followed the sleep training from The Blissful Baby Expert, Lisa Clegg and it worked brilliantly on day 1. Good luck!

[TaurielTest]

some links (e.g. to unicef leaflet) re safer bedsharing in this article
www.naturalmamas.co.uk/1670-2/

[ghostvitruvius]

I kind of have the opposite opinion to Twickersmum - it's pointless worrying about sleep training before 4 months because it all goes tits up then anyway! DS1 always fed to sleep for the 1st 4 months, DS2 self-settled - but when they are going through a sleep regression you just have to do whatever you can to get the most sleep. You can work on changing things easily enough at 5-6 months when everything has settled down again.

I wouldn't give up the lovely snuggly mornings you have now just in case you hit a rough patch later - you will probably hit a rough patch anyway!

[Twickersmum76]

I should probably add I wouldn't do anything differently for the first 12 weeks - I miss those cosy mornings in bed now like crazy and agree - the best thing you can give them then is cuddles and sleep when they want it. I probably would have taught my DD to fall asleep by herself in month 4 with hindsight, to avoid the month of sleeplessness I had. Hindsight is a wonderful thing though :)

[Twinklestar2]

Thanks everyone.

He does self settle too, but only in the middle of the night. After a night feed I put him down, make everything dark and quiet again and he drops off himself.

He def feeds to sleep in the daytime.

I was planning on 'sleep training' at 6 months once he's started eating food.

[Heatherbell1978]

I do something similar with my 11 week old. Once he's properly awake (anything from 6.30 to 7.30) I'm too knackered to get up so I just put him into bed next to me and we doze on and off until about 9am. I'm not really in any kind of routine with the wee man yet aside from him feeding every 3/4 hours or so so I'm just going with the flow just now...