Does co-sleeping mean the end to reading/tv in bed?

[bohemianbint]

DS1 was a terrible sleeper to begin with and never went much longer than an hour for the first 4 months. We used to all go into the bedroom together and either end up with him up all night crying, or sneaking past in the dark and having to go straight to sleep in silence.

I want to co-sleep with my next baby (due in Aug) in the hope that it might make them more settled and obviously easier for breastfeeding. But the thought of having to go to bed when the baby does, and be all quiet in the dark does my head in, I need to at least read for a bit before I go to sleep.

Is there any way round this, experienced co-sleepers?

well, you don't necessarily have to go to bed when the baby does
you can keep the baby down with you in the evenings at first (IME babies often very unsettled in evening anyway, ds used to just doze and feed on my lap most of the evening)

then you don't need to keep particularly quiet or be in the dark - little babies sleep through things and teaching them it has to be quiet and dark not a great idea really!
as they get older you can work something out - maybe put for sleep upstairs in your room and then come down again, or lie next to them with low light on, reading
I used to get vast majority of my reading time done when rocking ds to sleep in a sling, till he was very old indeed! it was a nice peaceful time to read, usually

Just do it! I think we snuck around too to begin with, but now I regularly go to bed early just to watch TV in bed while I watch DS sleep - the best part of the day. There is a danger that when he wakes up he will notice the telly, but I can usually breast-feed back into incoherency pretty quickly.... And reading isn't a problem either. I think if you just do it, especially from the start, the baby will adjust.

DS is in my bed most nights now (he's 5) and I read for a good hour when I go to bed - he just sleeps through, but then I've never made a thing of being quiet around the baby etc so he's learnt to deal with it lol

Well that's all quite promising!

I'm just starting to get the fear because DS just wouldn't sleep. Still doesn't, unless it's dark and he's on his own. And he's never been the sort to sleep through anything, the slightest thing wakes him up, and he can be awake for hours on end, have a 5 minute snooze and that'll be enough to keep him going for another 12 hours or so.

I am just praying that the next baby isn't so difficult...