To co-sleep or not to co-sleep?

[DA1987]

My son is 4.5 months and going through the dreaded sleep regression as well as slap bang in the middle of Wonder Weeks Leap 4 which I’ve heard is one of the worst. He was never a brilliant sleeper, but always did a longish 5-6 hour stretch at the start of the night. However, for about 2 weeks he’s waking roughly every hour and really hard to settle back down.

This is probably a daft question, but as a FTM if I co-sleep with him while we work through this phase (which I did in desperation at 5am and we both got a blissful 3 hours, the longest stretch he’s done all week), is he going to be a nightmare to get back into his next to me?

It's not a daft question but the answer is no one can tell you. Could go either way.

A better question is, if you end up co-sleeping until he is old enough to sleep train (6months minimum), will you mind?

I loved co-sleeping, but my DD1 was wriggly so she went in the cot at 4 months in her own room, not my original plan. However my DS2 was a great co-sleeper and I happily continued for ages. It's only a problem if you think it is.

Thank you, something to think about.
Based on last nights experience, he was a pretty solid sleeper - but he can’t roll yet so I suppose that could change. Funnily enough he didn’t even want to cuddle up to me, he was a good foot away. Frustratingly the same distance as if he slept in his next to me

Agree with pp that co sleeping could go either way. I did it with DC2 and I found it a harder habit to break than he did because I didn't want to go through the pain of settling him elsewhere when he coslept so beautifully!

Not what you asked, but I found wonder weeks leaps tended to be a self-fulfilling prophecy with DC1. With DC2 I deleted the app and he doesn't seem to have suffered with any leaps!

I started to co sleep at 9 months and haven’t looked back - why on Earth I tortured us all with trying to put him in the cot I will never know 😆

We did contact. Naps for a while too and one day he just decided he was happy to be put down.

Same for bed now - we have a sidecar cot, he goes to sleep in there with a little cuddle, then at some point in the early hours he climbs in with me. It’s a god send when he’s teething or unwell etc as I never have to get up!

Plus those sleepy early morning cuddles are just magic