A few cosleeping questions

[blushingmare]

I seem to be falling into a bit of cosleeping, although that's was never my plan and I'd really rather it was only a short term solution although it really is rather lovely having my snuggly baby sleeping next to me. But I have a few questions if there's anyone patient enough to answer!

I keep reading about baby making her own way to your breast to latch on and feed in the night, but really - is this possible?! Or is it something that happens when baby is older and able to roll etc? I find the latching on and keeping her latched on whilst lying down quite tricky and involves me having to turn on the light and wriggle myself and her around a lot to get the right latch.

Do you sleep on your side or on your back? I would imagine the feeding in the night thing would be easier if sleeping on your side, but I worry more about rolling on her when on my side, can't get comfy and don't know what to do with my arms! Normally I sleep semi on my tummy, hugging a pillow but that obviously isn't an option with her in the bed.

My bed is a cast iron old style bed so the "head board" is iron bats, not a solid piece of wood. Is this dangerous for cosleeping? When in her crib, she is quite wriggly and pushes herself up to the head of the bed, although she hasn't done that when sleeping with me yet. I attached an air wrap bumper to the headboard to try to block it, but this morning I noticed it had slipped down and I don't think offers enough protection.

Should I have something on the sides to prevent her rolling out? She's only 14 weeks and not rolling yet but it probably won't be long. DH is sleeping in the spare room, so I position her right in the middle of the bed.

Finally, I there any people out there that have just used cosleeping as a short term thing to help a clingy baby get some decent sleep? I am hoping when she's a bit better at self settling she will be sleeping in her own bed all night, but at the moment it is just the least exhausting and most peaceful thing to bring her in with me when ages having trouble settling at night. Although trying hard to ignore any "rod for your own back" types thoughts, I can't help but think I'm setting her up to expect to sleep with mummy!!

Oh and one other thing - how do you feed from both breasts without having to switch her to lying on my other side? Or is that not possible?!

iron bars, not bats - now that would be some gothic bed!

Hi am no expert but I 'fell into ' doing this too, my ds is now 12 weeks. I put him in with me when he wants feeding and position him safely - ie so I can see there are no choking or suffocation hazards fom my clothes or the way I'm laying - and feed him laying down. I'm on my side (a pillow between knees makes this more comfortable and stops me moving) and have the duvet rolled down and trapped between knees so it can't cover him. He lays facing me, face at boob level, and latches on. I tend to snooze while feeding hence the checks before I start that it's all safe. My bottom arm goes around his head and back to protect him and the top one usually under his bum or just on me, hand down between us.

I know someone who claims to be able to feed from the top boob without moving but I can't! If I need to do that I literally roll him over my body to the other side! Usually don't though and just have to relieve that one in the morning!

The middle of the bed sounds safe to me. There ae also sidecar cots, am sure you've seen them - I've got the John Lewis troll one which mst of the time just acts as a guard as ds prefers it over the divide in with me!

Obvs haven't been doing it long enough to answer the last question so will watch the thread!

With dd1, we co-slept until she was 2, but she didn't sleep through the night until she was 4. I think we kept each other awake, tbh, and I am doing things differently with dd2.

She is 14 weeks and so far we have been co-sleeping. Dh is sleeping in spare room, do she is in the middle. Last night I put her in her play yard ( we don't have a crib as dd1 never used hers) while I cleared the table, and when I went to get her, she was asleep. First time ever! She slept for five hours, before I gave her a dream feed and moved her into my bed.
This morning, I moved the play yard into my room. Tonight I will put her there again, wake her for a dream feed and then put her back in there. I plan to keep her in my bed when she wakes up after that, it might be 1:00 or 3:00. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of the end of co-sleeping for me!

I usually sleep on my back or front, but nurse on my side. I put my arm under her head, i guess my other arm is by my side, I never thought about it. I can feed her from either breast, but they are huge! I do roll forward slightly when feeding her From the top breast though. She is too little to attach herself, plus I sleep in a tank with a shelf bra, so she would have to pull that down, so I can't see that happening for a while!

HTH!

We had the bed up against the wall and baby was always on the wall side, so no danger of falling out - check there's no gap though, or roll up a towel or blanket to stuff down it.

Feeding from both sides without turning over just took practice for me - there are videos on you tube too and I think kellymom website has some links. I just sort of lean over.

Like you say, I sort of fell into it for DC1, but when DC2 came along, we co-slept from the start and I had no sleep deprivation whatsoever, it was the best decision especially as I had a lively toddler to deal with during the day this time around. I was literally awake for a few minutes while latching her on each time. Also, I think the fact that I did it from the very start meant that she never woke up properly in the night, and her body clock sync-ed very quickly, so she never had awake periods during the night.