Exclusive breastfeeders past & present...a little poll for you.

[vlc]

A dear friend of mine is expecting her first baby soon. She is very committed to exclusive breastfeeding. She (as I did) bought a cot, moses basket, carrycot etc in the very reasonable expectation that the baby will sleep peacefully in one of them.

My own experience is that after only a few days of concerted effort trying and failing to persuade dd to sleep in her amby hammock, I gave in and co-slept out of desperation, and never looked back. I personally would not have succeeded in excl bf for 6 months if I has persevered in seperate sleeping arrangements. For me, the one enabled the other.

I was just wondering, though, what the MN experience has been. If you successfully bf exclusively, did you co-sleep occasionally, regularly, or never?

Just curious, really!

I didn't co-sleep with my dd, but did feed her lying down in bed. She slept in her moses basket next to me in the early months, but i did have lots of problems trying to settle her!

Only read about half of thread.
We didn't co-sleep until my DD was about 9 months. She slept brilliantly until she was 5 or 6 months old (through the night) so there was no need. HOWEVER, after lulling us into a false sense of security in those early months, she stopped sleeping through around 6 months and lo and behold, we started co-sleeping!!!

At 16 months we are still bf-ing and sort of co-sleeping. She now only comes into bed at about 5.30am. Although i feed her to sleep every night on our bed and feed her in bed whenever she wakes up. Is just easier. Then I pop her back in the cot and stumble back to bed. By 5.30 though i can stumble no more and just give in!!.

Waking up to a smiling, chatting, cuddly 16 month old is a wonderful thing .

I haven't read the thread (10 pages!) we did cosleep, although I said prebaby I wouldn't. At my NCT class recently I was the only one who said they would (and only one with older children) the teacher said "there speaks a parent".

We weren't able to breastfeed exclusively because she was premature, mostly she was on BM and she was over 6 months before we started solids.

Another gem from my NCT class, the above question was from a poll of where we would feel happy about putting our baby. Everyone else said in their own cot or their own room. To those that said own room she pointed out that babies are twice as likely to suffer SIDS in their own room than their parents beds. She didn't say though that 90% of SIDS happens in a child's own bed, which makes me feel that cosleeping is by far the safest place of the three.

Coslept for a full year with DH in other room and cot / Moses basket set up out of fear of HV catching me! I eventually had to move her out and attempt to night wean at 13 months. I didn't find sleeping through a feed easy and she was too active at night.
I also wanted DH back in bed and there didn't seem to be space for 3!
Now 30months old and still feeding despite my going back to work 2 says a week when she was 6 months old. Never took a bottle at all.
We bought an Amby hammock bed with intention of using it to help me cope having two under 2yr at once. Unfortunately, the second (and third)pregnancy ended with a miscarriage, so I can't give a true opinion of it. My breastfed baby still suffered reflux so I thought it might be better than laying them flat.

BF both my children until weaned fully. But could not sleep with them in the same room as me.

like the idea of co sleeping but it just means that i then can't sleep for all the little noises they make and ds wanted feeding every hour cos he could smell me.... so at 6 wks went in his room, but in snall flat so was practically in same room iyswim?

Dd then went straight to the other room but whilst still small would sleep in our room to give ds peace.

I'm a bf peer support volunteer and I know about babies being best in same room as parents but it doesn't work for me and am fortunate that we found what worked for us.

if i had another I would want to invest in one of those alongside cots so that I could sleep with dc safe but near me for bf, and see if that worked at all. I just couldn't sleep with dc in my bed

I forgot to say, we always put her in her own bed when she fell asleep at night and moved her in with us when she woke first - normally when we went to bed anyway. As she went longer through the night without needing feeds she naturally moved into her own bed so there was no rough transition for her. We also allow her to come in with us whenever she asks, although we do try to keep her to her own bed when she goes down (sometimes she gets on our bed with a "well, that's me sorted" face!)

Both mine exclusive BF (till 6m and 9m) both slept in their own room from about 10 days. Both slept through the night at 3 m.

I exclusiveky breastfed 6 months and carried on for 14 months, now have a 8 week old, never fed either of them in bed. I am tempted with little one but dd is such a great sleeper (never woke in the night since 3 months) that I am inclined to do the same with him as I did with her. Many co sleepers I know baby still wakes to feed in the night at 9 months or a year-I'd rather short term cost for long term gain but its all trade offs and how desperately you need sleep in the short term

It's personal to the baby, nicewarmslippers and probably very little to do with where they sleep. I'm sure if you did a poll on MN you will find it's about equal for who did or didn't and had a baby that did or didn't sleep through the night.

I never had a disrupted night because I didn't have to wake up to feed her and the longer she went without needing a feed the more she slept in her own bed until we were taking her in probably around 4 or 5 then she'd go back off until I got up. As soon as she discovered solids she wasn't as interested in me anymore so probably by 7 months she was sleeping through the night in her own bed unless she was ill or couldn't settle. Not that she ever weaned from the breast, she's 2y 5m and I'm 31 weeks pregnant and she's still nursing.