Ear plugs at night - are they safe?

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Ds is 9 weeks and starting to be able to settle himself better between sleep cycles at night, which is great. But he makes such a load of noise while he's doing it that I've been waking up just as often as before. He's in a Moses basket next to my bed, so I hear every squeak and snuffle and end up lying there listening to him all night.

The last couple of nights I've been using ear plugs to try and block out the noise but is this safe? He's so close that I still wake up as soon as he actually cries, but I'm concerned that I'm somehow negating the safety benefits of having him in our room.

DH is in the spare room Mon to Fri as he works full time, so no solution there.

Any advice gratefully received.

The situation you're describing is why I moved my baby DS into his own room relatively early :) Perhaps if DH were to move back into your room and baby got the spare you'd find you all got a better night's sleep?

I've contemplated them for the same reason, DS is very noisy in light sleep and grunts, groans and strains. Those little yellow foam ones are ideal because they muffle the sound without blocking it out entirely. I decided against it in the end because i became able to tune in and out accordingly depending on whether he did actually need me or was still asleep. I think the safety benefits you refer to might have more to do with your LO hearing you breathing and synchronising his accordingly which helps them particularly in deep sleep. Plenty of people choose to put their babies in their own rooms very early on because babies are noisy little beings and their babies still thrive. The advice says that having baby in your room for 6 months "may" reduce SIDS, but i don't think it's been proven conclusively anyway and i don't think they know why. I quite like the breathing synchronisation theory myself. Either way, i think maternal instinct is very strong and would kick in if something was really wrong. It's worth reminding yourself of the SIDS statistics to put your mind at rest. Every minute of every day a baby is born in the UK. Each year around 300 will die from SIDS. Follow the advice as best you can and your LO will be fine - earplugs or no earplugs.

I've used them, also moved DS to other side of the bed! am such a light sleeper than i was hardly getting any sleep at all.

I moved him to his own room at 5 months and turned the baby monitor down low and now i sleep much better. As long as you can hear if he cries that's fine!

I use them as DH snores and it does help lock out every little snort and snuffle.

Thanks for all your comments. I will look into the safety reasons for sharing a room in more detail. My parents put me in my own room from day 1 and I turned out ok!

Nightime noises - yet another thing they don't tell you about at ante-natal classes....