Sleeping arrangements

I have fairly firm beliefs about "kids in thier own beds" - and setting up a sleep routine quite early.

With Isabelle I opted for co-sleeping and I must confess it had me at the local therapists office a bit too often with a large bag of anti-depressants to boot.

I am one of those moms who really cannot cope with broken/interrupted sleep. I know most moms have to, and do it wonderfully - I am just not that mom.

I accept that newborns bring broken sleep with them, but at the same time I start looking very quickly to find how to get a newborn to sleep more so I can sleep.

Lack of sleep,makes me very anxious, very stressed, very erratic, very panicky and well ..... not great on several fronts.

I was breastfeeding Isabelle, and though we had a moses basket in the room, it was winter, she was niggly, and I kept putting her in the bed with me to snuggle and to breast feed as I felt I wanted her really close to me.

Unfortunately (and I am not suggesting other moms have the same issues with co-sleeping, this was purely my experience) I found I was never asleep, I was always half dozing as I was aware she was there, and afraid if I slept heavily I might hurt her or what ever.

But I was willing to sacrifice the "good sleep" for the "warm feeling" of sleeping with my new baby.

The negative was that as she could smell me near her I appeared to be breastfeeding what felt like all the time. I was permanently on tap and my nipple appeared to reside in her mouth pretty much nearly all night.

During the day I also felt she was niggly and needed to be held against me all the time, I could not do anything for the first 3 months as I had her permanent attached to me. (I thought she had colic as she would scream if she was away from me, and I was not rocking her)

For what ever the reasons where and the contributing factors, I was going insane, one co-sleep night at a time.

One night, I think she was about 4/5 months old, I went to bookclub, rushed for my 3 hour outing so I could get back to breastfeed - got home and Kennith had decided to take matters into his own hands and had put Isabelle into her own cot in her own room, and co-sleeping ended upbruptly.

I thought the world had ended.

I thought Kennith was the devil's spawn.

I thought Isabelle could not sleep in her own room, as I was breastfeeding all through the night - at least every 3 hours if not less in some instances, there was just no way she could survive that far from me for that long.

The moment she was in her own room, she dropped her night feeds, and slept through (7 - 6am), so finally I started to get a semblance of sanity in my life.

I loved holding her close, and missed that part, and I missed the little nuffy-nuffy sounds and her milky breath. I missed all the squishy stuff that newborns are.

But damn, I needed my sanity!

So, that is sort of my thoughts on co-sleeping in my map of the world, but I get that it works for loads of moms/families/babies.

So many co-sleepers!

It just didn't work for us with the other two and both David and I aren't keen on it right now but it may change once baba is here. I dont mind sharing a room but not sure about the bed

Mandz, co-sleeping is the most common sleeping arrangement of parents and babies in the world and has tons of benefits for baby It's also the easiest solution when you are breast feeding. But each to their own of course! Every baby is different and easy going babies will accept sleeping in their own room much easier than high need LOs.

Nayeela, I've also considered moving our single bed into our bed room and leveling it with our double - must just see if there will still be enough space for the cot then. I can't put Lilly down alone in our bed as she'll crawl off.

Joli, I feel exactly the same way about it. Lilly was tiny at birth (2.68 kg) and even her carry cot made her disappear. It just didn't feel right when she wasn't close to me and DH during the time she slept in her own room - and she made it quite clear that it didn't feel right for her either.

Paige slept in a camp cot in our bedroom for the first 3 months and then we moved her to her own room and she slept better adn so did we, it seemed sleeping in the same room we all disturbed each other.

When she wakes up at around 4 30 - 5 am for her feed, I put her in bed wtih us and she feeds ( breast) and we snuggling in for another hour or two's sleep. I love the snuggles

Nayeela , sounds like you have the bed sorted we have just moved form a queen to a king size bed and it makes the world of differnece.

Yaz, it must be tight with a double, we felt squished in a queen, but then again my hubby is quite big

happy sleeping

Ah see now the easy sleep anywhere kid is another topic all together

My daughter is like that but my son not so much - as a baby he was a terrible sleeper if not at home.

Hoping this time round he adjusts cos we kinda have a pretty busy social life with lots of going out etc!

We've got a queen bed and it works for us. It does become a bit of a problem when Megan comes through in the early mornings, but she snuggles up to DH on his side and Callum is on my side . I feel that my babe(s) were in my tummy for 9 months (well Callum for 7 months) and to just let them be all on their own is not fair (I don't say you girls are not fair, it's how I feel!) and yes I might probably regret it later when they are bigger, but for now I enjoy snuggle up to Callum. I enjoy not having to really wake up / get up to feed Callum. I don't even know how many times I feed Callum as I don't keep track - some nights he wake more than others, but I just feed in bed with him next to me. I feel he needs me. And with my girls, I also worked full time so like Nayeela said - it was the only time I really had with them. When they are bigger they no longer want to cuddle and it's over for good. I enjoy my babies' closeness and I think they feel secure this way. It works for us.

I am thinking of doing Callum's room up now and to let him sleep there during the day. We've got a cot, Angel monitor etc. etc. so can just as well use, but he will still be in our room at night.

Nayeela, that explains it - that bed is even bigger than a king!!!!!!!