Baby sleeping in bedroom question

[FrizzyFrazzled]

This is possibly a very stupid question but it is something I have always wondered. My DS slept in a bassinet in our room until he was five months, dd currently 4.5 months and is still in there. We moved DS when he was too big for bassinet and dd is getting a bit big now so will prob move her soon.
My question is this: I know the guidelines say to keep them in with you until at least six months because they can hear you breathing and it regulates theirs. But... Really? How? I am a quiet sleeper as is dh and I can't hear either of them if I am awake at night, so can she really hear us well enough to match our breathing? Or is it an instinct thing?? Has always bothered me, this one...
Thanks in advance!

As I understand it it's an instinct/hormonal thing, not conscious. Babies and small children use adults' better-regulated body systems to regulate their own. It's also why toddlers who are happily playing off by themselves in the playground will sometimes run up for a quick cuddle and then hare off again. They need a 'reset'. Babies, being less developed, need this far more of the time.

It's more about them hearing you.

You always hear of parents striving to get their baby to "sleep through" from day one, which in theory is counter productive and honestly, very dangerous.

A baby can go in to a deep sleep and as such can 'forget' to breathe (in worse case scenario). By having the baby in your room, either in a moses basket or co sleeping with you, your breathing stirs and wakes the baby at regular intervals - as such, the baby doesn't go in to that deep sleep.

So it's more about you disturbing them than the other way round.

HTH

Ahh ok. I thought it might be a more instinctual thing. I just worried, especially with DS, that I wasn't breathing loud enough for him to be able to hear me and be guided by my breathing!!

I thought that the guidelines were to keep them in your room for the first 6 months as it does reduce SIDS but they really don't know why yet.