How do you co-sleep?

[DitaVonCheese]

Just wondering how all the co-sleepers do it. With DD we didn't start until she was five months but after that she used to go between us on top of the duvet in her babygro and grobag - I thought that was safest as would mean she couldn't get covers over her head etc. Have since read that that meant missing out on lots of the benefits of co-sleeping eg temperature regulation etc.

With DS we've been co-sleeping from birth. He's 14 weeks now but I think bigger than DD was at six months! DH will quite often have a glass of wine in the evening plus DD comes in first thing in the morning, so DS is on the outside of the bed next to an ace foam bedguard that goes under the sheet, then me curled around him, then DH/DD if she's there too. DS just has a babygro or top on and goes under the cover with me - I try to keep it quite low, around his waist, clamped down by my arm.

Am thinking I'd love to strip him down to his nappy to get some real skin-to-skin but worried about his arms/shoulders/torso getting cold. Also I do tend to pull the duvet up over my shoulder as it's too cold otherwise. Atm I'm sleeping in nothing but a bra to hold my breast pads in place (over-supply issues). We still have the summer duvet so it's quite lightweight if it does ride up, but it does bother me a bit.

Just wondering how other people do it as in what does your baby/toddler wear and how do you keep warm without them overheating/getting covers over their head.

i co-sleep with my baby who is now 9 months and have done every night since he was born. I've always had him in a vest, sleepsuit and gro-bag, (sometimes a blanket if it's cold). I have my duvet wrapped round me like a sleeping bag and only up to my waist - long sleeved tops are great to wear when co-sleeping. I curl round my boy and he latches on and off when he wants.

The bed is up against the wall on the side he sleeps and i've stuffed the edge so it's flat and there's no gaps for him to creep down.

I always put him to sleep in his cot for the early part of the evening whilst i'm up and then when he wakes later on, i bring him in with me.

hth

DD is 14mo, have co-sleep on and off since she was 8wo. We've got an ikea cot with the side off up against my side of the bed with the mattresses pushed up aginast each other. Means she has her own space and isn't between DH and I.

Works for us and is likely to stay that way for a while

Oh I was going to ask the very same thing! With dd1 we did like you said and put her on top, in her grobag. Now dd2 is next to me on an "empty" bit of bed, I have the duvet over me but only up to waist/chest height (another long sleeve top wearer). I am just a bit sick of always lying on the same side tbh, my creaky old joints are complaining. She is 24wks and not really very mobile, I'd love to be a bit more snuggled up with her but not sure how to do that safely?

Wave.

I have co-slept with DS (10 months) since he was born. DH is in another rooom because of his snoring :( I woud rather he was back in with me so he could see how disrupted sleep can be when you have a baby in with you share the magical co-sleeping experience.

DS usually wears a babygrow over a vest and then has a blanket which he throws off in the night. We end up sleeping cwtched right up to eachother so I think he gets his warmth from me. In the early days I was paranoid about him getting too hot even though he was born in December and I do remember one morning, when he was very young, waking up to find he had the duvet on his face so now I have the duvet over on my side. I have his cot on one side of the bed and a baby guard on the other. I only put the cot up because I was vaguely thinking of starting to put him in it but never did. So in just bed-guard days it would be me, him then bedguard.

oh, and now I wear my dressing gown undone in bed so I have some warmth on my shoulders but he can still get to my boobs.

we have a big futon so it is low to the ground so no worries if they roll out :) we also have a toddler bed that is the same height as the futon next to our bed so as they get bigger ie 18mtsh plus they can go in that and then be shifted back into our bed easily if they stir, need to be fed etc.

i have always used grobags and dp and mysel fhave single duvets so depending on where the child sleeps they are never under a duvet. the bed is pushed up against the wall on one side and the baby generally sleeps on that side, or sometimes in the middle.

dd however has always liked to be swaddled, even now at 10mths so she wears a vest and babygrow and is then swaddled in a cotton cot sheet and if necessary has blankets on her, when it was hot she was just in a nappy and vest and i swaddled her in mussy cloth. if she is unsettled i scoop her into my arm and she rests her head on my shoulder/chest and sleeps like that in the crook of my arm, otherwise she is just in bed next to me, but i sort of curl around her.