Co Sleepers - Do you all sleep with dc snuggled in??

[lauraloola]

Dd is still in her snuggle nest at 5mo as I am still not sure about co sleeping without it.

I have asked questions before and lots of people said they snuggle their lo into their arm and sleep like that.

I am worried about rolling on her. She will sleep in her cot but if she wakes in the night I have her in with me - Dp sleeps on the sofa

Does anyone do it differently?

we seem to end up i all sorts of contorted situations

dp sleeps in a double bed in ds's room with ds (3). i sleep in the girls' room (!) with dd (7 months) dd starts off in the cot or on the bed depending where she fell asleep. if she comes into the bed with me, sometimes it's on top of the duvet next to me and sometimes on the bed next to me but i keep the duvet wrapped under me so that she isn't under it - she is always in her wee sleeping bag so that she can be moved around easily.

ds usually comes in with us half way through the night. he doesn't care for dp's snoring either

i've never been worried about rolling on either of them - probably because i'm never asleep for long enough to do so!!

Ds3 is currently co-sleeping with me. He is 4 months old. I like my space so I try to put him back into the middle of the bed after feeds. Sometimes I fall asleep with him feeding so he stays there (which he prefers). If he is next to me feeding, he is under the duvet (not his head). If he is in the middle of the bed, he is not under the duvet as DH and I have single duvets. He wears a sleeping bag to bed so that he is warm enough if he is not under our duvet. I have never worried about rolling on him and he has co-slept with me since birth.

With DS when I was particularly nervous I used to have my arm out to the side and bent at the elbow and have his head in the crook of my elbow -- that way I knew where he was but couldn't roll onto him. As he got older and with DD she just sleeps in the middle of the bed with her arms flung out and DH and I take up what room's left at the edges (I still stick my arm out so that it goes between her and the pillows, though).

Ilana - how does it work when DS is asleep but you aren't ie for naps and earlier in the evening?

Thanks. I think I might try it and see what happens.

I guess you just know that they are there even when asleep IYKWIM so you wouldnt roll on them.

Good idea IlanaK - I am going to get a single duvet. We have a super kingsize at the mo and wrapping it around me is a pain.

when we coslept, ds was in his grobag on top of our duvet, and never had a problem or worry about rolling etc. In fact, he was a lovely weight in the middle of the duvet and kept it in place and stopped dh nicking it all onto his side!

really don't worry, your instinct (as long as you follow the standard rules of not drunk/drugs/on heavy meds) will make sure you don't roll on her. make the most of it, its a very special time and lovely bonding, comforting thing to do.

With DD1, I never co-slept as I was too nervous. With DD2, we sometimes co-slept with her on top of the duvet in her sleeping bag. Now, with DD3, we end up co-sleeping at some point every night and I go against all advice . She is either flat on the bed and I have my arm curved over the top of her head and down her side, or she is lying with her head on my shoulder and I cuddle her into me. She is always under the duvet.....

I try to be strong,boy in his own bed etc etc but at about 5.00 every morning, if not before, little DS (now 6 mo so not so little) wakes and wont go back to sleep unless with us in bed. Under duvet, under the crook of my arm, he effectively nosing my armpit, sucking his thumb, DP snoring on his other side. It is the lovliest thing. The expression on his gorgeous little face when he wakes up properly later and looks from one to the other of us....well worth the pain in my arm! x

Sorry, only just came back to this. Nappyaddict - until ds3 was 3 months old, he would only sleep in bed if I was there. Other times, he slept in a sling on me or dh. Once he was over 3 months, he started to be able to be fed to sleep on our bed and then stay there when I got up. Now, at 4 months, if we are home he has all his sleeps on our bed. He will sleep for long ones there too - up to 2.5 hours! When we are out and about, he sleeps in a sling.

Ilana - don't you worry about him rolling off when you aren't in bed with him?

Oh sorry, I forgot to say that I have a bed rail up on my side of the bed. I always leave him on my side when I get ot of bed. Dh's duvet is on the otherside so he is unlikely to be able to roll over that yet. Not sure what I will do when he is older and more mobile. Probably put some pillows on the floor incase he rolls off!

Currently cosleeping with DD3 who's 4 months (coslept with all 3)

She starts off the night in her bedside cot (there just now ) then first feed comes in with me and falls asleep at whatever side she is feeding from, she sleeps under the duvet (I wrap it under her arms) she moves up the way not down when she is asleep.

I have never rolled on any of them when asleep you just know they are there same as you never roll into your other half or off the bed.

We have superkingsize bed and bedside cot so plenty of room

SK - do you have a rail incase she rolls off or is the side of the bed without the cot against a wall?

The way we did it was this
Bed rail,
baby, mummy and daddy formation,
baby in sleeping bag.
Me and DH under quilt I had it tucked under me so as not to be over DD.
I laid facing her and she tended to lay facing me. I knew her every move as when cosleeping you just sense everything. (I still wake to her sighing in her sleep and she's in her own bedroom!)
If you're worried put a pillow in front of your tummy or something to stop you rolling but to be honest, providing you do it safely, it isn't likely that you will. You don't tend to roll onto your DH or out of bed do you?

nappyaddict - she doesn't roll in her sleep yet but from the other two we used to form a barricade of the double duvet rolled up at the other side of the cot until we went to bed then it's either bedside cot-baby-Mummy-Daddy or bedside cot with Mummys bum in it-Mummy-baby-Daddy

So what happens with co sleeping once they start crawling?

You know I cannot remember and I must do because DD1 was 15 months when we stopped cosleeping and DD2 12 months so they would have been walking nevermind crawling

I think we just used the rolled up duvet thing.

hmmm i tried it with DS a few times when he was poorly but he kept climbing over the duvet making it even higher to fall.

I have co-slept wth all mine until they were aged three [hippy emoticon]

DS2 is currently 21 months and co-sleeps

Have never had any issues really, apart from the occassional elbow or hand in the face in the middle of the night

I find they sleep better in winter as they like snuggling under blanket/duvet (depending on age) and don't wake so often. They tend to crawl around the bed in summer months and stay snuggled and alseep all night when the weather turns cold

DS2 kisses me and gives me a quick cuddle before he turns over and goes to sleep - soo cute. He still BF's but not at night

ps. we have a bedside cot at side of bed so he can't roll on floor

I always keep my arm extended above DS's head so that I cannot physically roll onto him without breaking my shoulder.

He chooses whether or not to snuggle into me - neither of us move much when asleep anyway - and DH is still in the spare bed (his choice, I hasten to add, and only because he loves his sleep too much!).

When they start crawling it can be a nightmare if they wake up at 3am and want to go somewhere - then I DO have to hang on to him and snuggle him in until he goes back to sleep. He is nearly 1yo now - we mostly don't co-sleep through the night now, just if he wakes in the early-ish hours of the morning.

Maybe I just didn't have a sleep crawler I honestly cannot remember any of them getting over it and certainly I would remember them falling off the bed.

What you could do is put them down in a cot beside you to start off with then when they wake in the night lift them into the middle of the bed.

I think if I didn't have the bedside cot at my side DD3 would always be in the middle of the bed.

Thanks everyone.

I think I will invest in a bed rail - Do they fit any size mattress?

Im going to give it a go. I dont think I go into a deep sleep when I have her in her snugglenest.

I might even treat dp to a nice air bed as the sofa is getting a little uncomfy

Bed rails normally only fit single beds or smaller, I think.

you can get bed bumpers though, can't you? Only thing is, if they are crawling, they can crawl over those as well, so it just increases the potential drop. (yes, I have thought about it)