Co-sleeping with premature babies

[milfAKAmonkeymonkeymoomoo]

Friend of mine has just had her DS who was 5.5 weeks early, they are struggling with the night. He is BF but she didn't know whether she could co-sleep with him or not at this stage? Does anyone have any advice for or against or any official info, anecdotal stuff?

He was born 1.5 weeks ago and is now home.

Hi Milf,
My DS was 6wks prem and was in hospital for 9 days, I am sure he wouldnt sleep when I brought him home because he had spent all that time in a plastic cot that he could see out of and then went into a moses basket .He was a nightmare ,not crying just never seemed to sleep ,always was restless and only seemed to settle when he came into our bed to be BF.He would fall asleep on me as soon as he stopped feeding only to wake up as soon as I placed him back in the basket.

In the end I was so knackered DP went and slept in the spare room and I had DS in bed with me and he slept in our bed for months. I am sure it was the basket though as in the day he wouldnt sleep in it either so used to end up falling asleep in his bouncy chair or carrier.

I used to use pillows down the one side of the bed so he couldnt wriggle off and used a bed sheet to go over them so he couldnt get caught underneath.You can buy these co sleeping bed things that you put them in stops them rolling over etc now,but at the time(3 years ago) didnt see anything like that.

I know the hard fast rule is if a prem they shouldnt sleep with you so they should really speak to the mw or hv.Perhaps if they are using a basket they might benefit from using a crib with bars or one of those that you can take the one side away and pull up to the bed

The bedside cot is a super compromise between co-sleeping and separate sleeping. All of mine have been in one, and being able to snug up close to them, and put my hand on them while they slept, was wonderful. I co-slept with all of them to varying degrees (from some of the night for a couple of weeks with my first, to several months with my third) and it was lovely to have them so close to hand and not have to get in and out of bed but be able to put them in the cot so easily if I chose to. It also meant that dh didn't have to leave the bed, as the space on the other side of me (ie not the centre of the bed) wasperfectly safe for the baby.

These are the sort of thing I was on about, these are on ebay.You will need to stick the item numbers in on the ebay search bit as I am too thick to work out the link thing.

130145653756.

300083764533.

Would second the bedside cot I had one for DD2 and it was fab it's like an extension of your bed. Depending on what side I last fed from DD2 would either be in the cot or in the middle of the bed with my bum in the cot.

what about something like this (ebay again!)- 270157485047

Thank you everyone Will pass this on to her, must admit if and when I get pregnant again I want one of those bedside cots!