co sleeping advice please

[cindyrella]

Hi
I am considering co sleeping with dd. My dh sleeps on the couch every night as he works then takes her in a sat/sun morn so i can sleep in. i ebf on demand usually 2 hourly si want to make it easier on myseld.

My bed is king size ans firm so am confident sleeping safely.
What i want to know is will this make it harder to get her to sleep in her own crib/cot later or even occasionally?

Wha have been peoples experiences of co sleeping? Good &/ or bad??

I loved co-sleeping. I have wonderful memories of watching ds2 fall asleep whilst feeding and curling his fingers into my hair. It made life so much easier at the time.

After breastfeeding for 18 months I decided it was time for his own cot. This was a bit tricky but no where near as difficult as trying to train 6 month old ds1 to sleep in his cot and I neither breast fed nor co-slept with him. Ds2 still joined me for a few years when he woke up in the night and still needs a night light now at the age of 10 but this could be unrelated to co-sleeping.
It definitely worked for me and I'm going to do the same with ds3 but perhaps not for as long.

I co-slept out of necessity because DD was feeding all through the night and I just couldn't take it anymore with the sleep deprivation. For a while we co-slept in my room (DP is spare room) but eventually I took out the completely unused crib from her room and replaced it with a double mattress on the floor and we both slept there. At around 2yo I did some sleep training to wean her off the boob at night and then moved back to my own bed. I think getting her used to her own room/bed and leaving her there may have made things a bit easier than 'turning her out' of my bed/room so maybe that's an option?

Thank you both. I tried it last night & had best sleep since she was born. She seemed to sleep quieter and so much easier to feed & settle. Even though crib is only at end of the bed.

Still hoping it wont affect future crib sleeping! Wonder if i could do both or if that would just confuse her...

I've got twins and it's the only way I get enough sleep! We started sort of accidentally as I'd fall asleep feeding them and wake up 2 hours later when they wanted to feed again. I put a cot on one side and bed guard on the other side of the bed, which made it feel safer - not that the roll outwards really, just in towards me which does mean I get a bit squished at times. I love waking up with them in the mornings.

Babies seem to be very very different from each other when it comes to sleep so I imagine there are no guarrantees that she won't be upset by the eventual move to the crib, but equally many babies/children adjust very well to change so you never know. I think you need to do what you need to do now to get sleep and worry about the future as and when it becomes a problem. I don't really agree with the 'rod for your own back' type worries as I've had enough problems in the here and now with sleeping to worry about the future!

I'd definitely agree with 'do what you need to do now', don't worry about later as it may not even be an issue. But co-sleeping you definitely get more sleep and LO sleep much more soundly as they're 100% secure. I've been doing it for the past couple of months and DS in 10 months. He still feeds through the night and after that long of broken nights sleep I wish I'd done it from the start. Will do with the next one. Think I may have to put the mattress on the floor as OP has said as he's very mobile tho now.