Co sleeping

[babymama333]

I know this is a subject with varying opinions but I wanted to know how many mums do co sleep but maybe don't admit it.

I put my baby down every night in his crib. He wakes around 1.30 for a feed which I do and put it back in his bed. He wakes again around 5.30, I feed him again and then I put him in my bed for a cuddle before we get up usually around 8. (After this feed he never settles back in his bed anyway) I have found this is the only way I can get some decent sleep before the day ahead. Not only that but I love our cuddles! This has really helped me bond with him so therefore I wont regret it. At 6 months he will be going in his cot in his own room.

Is there really anything wrong with this?? I feel like I don't want to admit it when people ask about his sleeping arrangements although it's nothing to do with them.

The lullaby trust have lots of info and safety guidelines for co-sleeping available online. Personally I think it is great if done properly.

I intended having my daughter in a side-car cot, she had silent reflux and fed frequently, invariably ending up sleeping on me so after reading up on safe co-sleeping we swapped to a double mattress on the floor. Both of us got far more sleep that way. I didn’t talk about it with many people as we were happy with how we had things set up and didn’t want judgement and unwanted advice.

She’s four now and moved into her own room very happily just before she turned three. She was sleeping through well before that and it was only because I didn’t get her room sorted out as quickly as I hoped that she didn’t move sooner.

Co sleeping is great. I bought a next to me crib but DS never settled unless he was on me or next to me in bed. He's now 11 months and will go to sleep on his own, but he comes back into my bed (and stays there) when he wakes for a night feed. It feels natural, I love the cuddles and it's much easier for breastfeeding!

Interestingly, I used to start defending myself when talking about co-sleeping, only to find that about 75% of the people I know have co-slept with their baby at one point or another.

We've been cosleeping since day one. Well, day three; she wouldn't settle all night after being discharged from the hospital so finally at 7am, after being awake all night with her in my arms, I plonked her next to me on the mattress and we both slept.

There have been phases where she's slept in her Snuzpod, including a blissful fortnight where we could even zip up the side so I could ensconce myself in duvet, but she's been waking every 2-3 hours or more frequently since 12 weeks and wakes after the first sleep cycle if she starts anywhere but in bed with me. I'm trying all the tricks – warm the Snuzpod mattress, wear the sheet under my top so it smells like me, etc, but she's having none of it.

I half love it – she's a cosy lil snug bug! God help me I even found myself "just enjoying the cuddles", even though I haaaaaate when people say that – half hate it: she really won't sleep without me at the moment and she goes to bed at 7pm, so I basically don't get an evening, and I do worry she'll be in our bed for years; plus she kicks and thrashes and farts the night away as well as all the wake-ups so it's not like I'm getting much more sleep this way, and the bugger won't feed lying down.

I do the defensive "we cosleep... but safely!!!" thing to, most recently to a doctor at A&E who frowned and said, "What's that then?" When I explained she went, "Cool, so you don't roll over and squish them?" but didn't seem terribly bothered...