Our baby is 19 days old and at night she is becoming increasingly distressed if I try to get her to sleep in her bednest cot (right next to our bed). As a result we have been co-sleeping which seems like the easiest and best way of settling her until she gets a bit bigger and more confident about going into her bed nest.
I have tried to follow the guidance about co-sleeping, making sure duvets and pillows can't go over her head, putting her between me and side of bed etc., but the thing I am struggling with is getting her to sleep on her back. Sometimes I manage to put her flat on her back on top of the duvet with me under the duvet facing her, and that worked for a while... however we then had 4 nights where she still cried and got really distressed and I was starting to feel absolutely dreadful from lack of sleep - I think she was unhappy because she still didn't feel close enough to me to feel my body warmth / hear my heart beat etc.
So last night, after I had become extremely tired, she slept on my chest for most of the night, only waking up to feed. I had the duvet pushed down to my waist and tucked in so it couldn't ride up, with just a thin blanket covering her and my top half. It is the best night's sleep we have both had since she was born, and I found it very easy to wake up for feeds since I was very sensitive to her rooting cues (whereas when she has been beside me I haven't always managed to wake up immediately).
However I know the guidance is that babies should sleep on their backs and I don't want to do anything that could be dangerous. I instinctively feel that her on my chest is safer than next to me, as I was much more aware of her presence / breathing / feeding cues etc. and there is no way I would roll on her since I am effectively pinned to the bed(she's not a light new-born baby either!), but that obviously isn't what the official guidance says.
Also I do worry about whether doing this will mean she is harder to settle in her bed nest further down the line - obviously she is still very young so possibly a little premature to be worrying about this but still...
Has anyone else found this way of sleeping worked for them? Is this as bad an idea as the guidance makes out and should I try to get her to go on her back again beside me? I really don't want to do anything that would endanger her but last night I was just at my wit's end - was such a relief to find a way of getting some proper sleep for one night!