Bed sharing with 4 month old

[Lifewithliv18]

So after 4 months of being woken every hour in the night, I finally caved and decided to give bed sharing a go to see if it made any difference. She slept 8 hours straight the first night! And since then has slept so much better. I put her right up the top of the mattress with the pillows removed and put her in a sleeping bag with my duvet at waist height for me so it does not go near her. I place pillows on the other side of the bed behind her to stop her rolling and place a rolled up towel at the top of the mattress to stop her hitting head on hard headboard, but it takes up so much space and is such a faff. I would much rather put her in some kind of nest/pod on top of the mattress without worrying about barricading her with pillows. Does anyone have any recommendations on some that are a bit bigger than the typical sleepy head/purflo nests etc? She’s very long for her age, the length of 6 month old at least. And if anyone else bed shares, how do you do it and still manage to keep your own space? I love having little one near me but she always wriggles her way to my side of the bed right into my armpit, meaning it’s hard for me to get into a comfortable position as I don’t have the room and also worry about rolling on her. Any advice appreciated but please no lectures about the “risks of co sleeping”, it is what works for me and my child and I am happy with my decision.

Cosleeping is so much easier. I did not start doing it until 6 months as I was worried about SIDS. But safe cosleeping does not cause SIDS. If I have another child I would cosleep earlier. If you wanted info on anything to do with sleep including safe cosleeping (sound like you have that covered) then I recommend the ISIS durham university site.

We have just put out mattress on the floor so DD can have her nap in bedroom herself and it means on a night she can be by herself until we go to bed. You do need to occasionally prop up the mattress to prevent mould.

Thank you for all the info. That’s actually a great idea, I never thought of that!

We used a sleepyhead and found it excellent for this. You unclip the bottom end so having a long baby doesn't matter! Fits up to 8 months approx and then they do a larger size - though that's fairly enormous so not sure how much of the bed you would get!

Thank you, I didn’t realise you could undo the bottom. I’ll have a look into it. Can’t take up much more room than she is currently with all the pillows etc!

We have a safety first bed rail , it attaches to the side of your bed so baby doesn’t fall out .. we call it the babycatcher

I co- slept with 3 out of my 4 and tbh most of the time they slept snuggled into my arm where I would fall asleep feeding them.

I did find that even when asleep I was subconsciously aware of where they were. I never even slightly rolled on them.

I would just make a gap between your side and your OHs (if you have one) side and pop her in the middle

We had a bed rail; I feel that pillows didn't do enough when DS started rolling. No faff with the headboard - he could just as easily headbutt the headboard in his cot, so I just left it there. He'd fall asleep in the crook of my arm and push his face against me or DH. I slept in the "recovery position" as not to roll on him, but I always felt aware of his position and like I was not a danger to him in any way.

Transitioned into the cot and his own room wonderfully, recently decided he wants to self settle and no longer fall asleep on the boob, now has milk and then points at the cot, where he turns on his lullaby machine himself, rolls to the side and falls asleep in 2-3 minutes. All those "rod for your own back" people who have been lecturing poor little first time mom me for months about breastfeading on demand, cosleeping, feeding to sleep etc can simply go f* themselves.

Thank you everyone! Guard rail sounds like a good idea as sounds like it will give more space. And it’s true I suppose, of all the times I’ve fallen asleep feeding her I’ve never once almost rolled on her. We are clever aren’t we mums!? Broccoli I love that! So true, I’m sick of people saying that. I just think more fool you when I’m the one getting lovely sleep!

We use foam wedge bed guards that go under the sheet. They won't stop them crawling off the bed but they do stop rolling. My 2.5yr Dd still has one on her bed which she quite often snuggles into at night!

tbh most of the time they slept snuggled into my arm where I would fall asleep feeding them. I did find that even when asleep I was subconsciously aware of where they were. I never even slightly rolled on them.

I second this, and bedrail.