He's still in with us, its ok though, right....?

[SarahJinx]

I think I'm totally fine with this, but other people are making me worry.

DS is 17 months and sleeps in a cot in our room. I love him being there, he wasn't a great sleeper but now is pretty good (despite the odd backbreaking, early waking phase/teething etc) so we're happy with the way things are. He's a pleasure to wake up to.

Recently - over the past couple of months - I'm getting a lot of comments that we're fucking him up, we'll never get him into his own room, making a 'rod for our own backs', surely you're planning to sort that out soon? etc etc blah blah.

So, is it alright? Are we 'damaging' him in any way, or making life harder? If I thought for a second this was a bad thing I wouldn't do it. He's our pfb, so we're happily making mistakes as we go along, would just like to know what you think.

I seriously only ever saw mine twice, we must have loads of unticked boxes.

And, lord only knows where my birth to five book is....oopsy.

:)

Our box ticking stress right now is that DS is slightly speech delayed. He sings in perfect tune to about 30 songs- including 'incy wincy'; 'heads shoulders' and 'shes a rainbow' by the rolling stones. But he has a vocab of about 15 words maybe. (Mind you, he counts perfectly to 11) So they are doing all the tests and people keep saying that i need to do something about it. (I am trying not to panic, but to remember that they develop at their own paces).

He said for the first time ever yesterday 'blackbird'. i cried. :)

Off tangent. :)

Aw. I hear ya. The stress if it all being alright is immense, isn't it. He sounds fab (esp the rolling stones!).

If you are happy, your DP is happy and your DS is happy then you are doing everything right.

DD - 3.5 years - is still in our actual bed. I am sure she will eventually move out when she is ready to. She has gone from wanting mummy-milk every 3 hours in May to not having asked at all for the last 3 days and I never thought that would ever end without a huge fight!

You might enjoy Deborah Jackson's 'Three In A Bed'.

Really it is not anyone elses business. I was endlessly told I was making a rod for my own back and that DD would be clingy and dependent because I did full-on Attachment Parenting. Well, first of all - my rod, my back, and secondly DD is one of the few children in her class who can't even be bothered to say goodbye to me in the morning so I don't think she is exactly clingy and dependent.

I grew up in a country where whole families shared one big bed for years on end. I find the whole concept of independent sleep for babies to be the less normal choice - certainly in evolutionary terms. No baby chimp or orangutang sleeps alone!

Not only did most people in the past cosleep but in most countries in the world it is still standard practice. Moving your child to their own room at a young age is a particularly western habit that became popular in the 20th century I believe. So feel free to point out to anyone who mentions it that they are the ones with the unusual sleeping arrangements and that you are something of a traditionalist and would prefer to stick with the tried and tested method, thanks all the same.

I find this usually flummoxes people into silence :o

3.2 yo and 8mo in bed with me every night. haven't squashed them yet mil

Yy to Deborah Jackson 'three in a bed' it's a lovely book.

DS3 didn't have a bedroom until he was 2.6 - he was in a cot in our room until then. He moved into a big bed in his own room just fine - the first night he started off in bed then moved back to his cot, the second night he slept in the bed all night and never looked back.