safe and practical co- sleeping

[Hallloumi]

I'm curentky co-sleeping part of the night in order to survive. However it's not working great as baby still doesnt sleep well and im stressd re squashing/smothering her. I dont undestand how to follow all the safe co-sleepung rules. We're in a rented flat and the bed doesn't move so can't be against a wall. At the moment DH is out the bed, babe is in the midldle and I move from side to sid depending on which side I'm feeding from. I try to tuck covers under me. How can this be done with DH in the bed, or without me moving around so much, or in a smaller bed (if we ever go away)? Thanks

I have no answer for the swapping sides to feed - I was able to find a comfy way of lying on one side to feed from either breast. I have a bed in middle of the room too, I also had a cot for DS - I took the side off and shoved the cot next to my side of the bed, I also had to change the height of the cot mattress so it was level with the bed, this meant we all had more space. Think you can actually buy co sleeping cots that are for this. If you try this you may have to safely fill any small gaps in between bed and cot with rolled up towels (it really depends on the edge of yr bed and if mattress sits inside bed base or if it is flush) , also make sure the cot cannot move away from the bed. I would never have DS in between me and DP, too risky. I got on well with co sleeping and didn't find it stressful at all once I found a comfy safe solution, in fact I felt very in tune with DS, it sounds a bit weird but I knew when he was going to wake up and quite often he would wake up straight after me etc. good luck.

So was/is your DS between you and the edge. What do you do when they can roll?

Oh sorry i guess you mean he was between you and the cot? I wanted to get a co-sleeping cot but I'm in canada at the moment and they were banned here. Also what does your DS wear in bed- my DD usually wears a baby sleeping bag but as far as I understand the advice is not to use one if co-sleeping but as it's also impossible to follow the rulesfor blanketsc(tuck into cot mattress) I don't know what is best.......

I was the same as you OP - had to swap sides as I couldn't find a comfy way to feed from both breasts if I was just lying down on one side. So DD ended up in the middle, and I put pillows on the 'unoccupied' side, even if the bed was against the wall as I didn't want DD to bump against the wall (I've also co-slept on a bed that was in the middle of the room). I know pillows can be a bit of a hazard, but tbh DD tended to gravitate towards me anyway when we co-slept. I did look into buying a cot rail that I could attach to our bed but it was too much faff, and even though DD started rolling over very early on she didn't move around that much when asleep when she was younger (she's now 13 months old and we only co-sleep if she's not well or is having trouble going back to sleep).

Also I left her in her sleeping bag and and tucked the duvet under me at hip level - and made sure I wore a cardi or fleece to bed on cooler nights!

Yes DS was between myself and the cot, or as he got older he would be in his cot and I would be lying next to him on the edge of our bed (which was pushed up against the cot ). I used a sleeping bag when he was newborn but stopped as he got older , he found them frustrating with kicking legs. Then I used to just dress him in comfy sleep suits and use a blanket (one with holes in), I never tucked it into the sides . I always had my blanket or duvet half way down my self and just as fflonkl said I wore a jumper/cardi to keep my top half warm.