How do you Co-Sleep with 2 kids?

[HappyLoveMama]

I am due in April and still co-sleep with my 3.5 yo son. I cannot fathom how this can be done with 2. Mind you, while the next one is a newborn, I think I will end up getting the Arms Reach and use that for a bit or a bassinet...I'm way to paranoid in those early weeks. Once I get to a comfort level, I will totally bring that baby into bed with me, since I am a huge breastfeeding mama.

I have a king (temperpedic - at that - so it's interesting) and DH usually goes into the guest room as DS sleeps like a sun dial (no kidding, I'm constantly protecting my belly from his kicks). Can anyone shed some light on this for me? Should I just get DS to start in his bed now before this baby is due so that it's not like I'm banishing him just because of a new sibling? That would break my heart, could never do it. So if that is the solution, I got to get to work tonight...well, I do have until April...

Eventually, I do see myself in the middle of them but would need rails or something. Now, I just put some of the heavy temperpedic pillows on the side that I'm not laying on (we don't sleep on them, so they found a purpose).

I know we can try DS with DH but DS still wakes up and looks for boobies...sigh...so we're working on that...NOT EASY! LOL

[porcelina]

I was in the same boat until recently, now we are cosleeping with a 33 month old and a 3 week old. We tried decorating DS1's room, having him sleep in there (led to wakings every 2 hours), tried me sleeping in there with him on mattress on the floor (led to him hopping onto my mattress after 2 hours sleep, then I went to the other mattress, and he hopped back to mine after 2 more hours, repeat), and eventually gave up. This guy just really needs his mommy. We did manage to night wean all but one feeding, between 4 and 6 am. That was the hardest to get him to give up, resulting in screaming for an hour when he was denied the feeding. Gave up on weaning him from it.

Now, I regret giving up on not completely night weaning, because it is an absolute necessity for my sanity at this point. So, instead of nursing baby every 2 hours, and nursing him at 4 am, we are going through the hour of wakefulness when he is denied nursing at that time! It would have been a lot easier to have done this before! But, that's where we are.

So, I say, why not go ahead and try to get him into his own room. Some kids may be ready before you even realize it. Others, maybe not. If it doesn't work, don't sweat it too much. But, definitely try to get him nightweaned if he's not already!! For your own sanity!!!!

As for the logistics, I have baby in a moses basket next to me, and we have our two mattresses on the floor, with me on the end, DS1 next to me, and then DH on the twin mattress next to DS1. Eventually, I guess we'll get a bedrail, though what I've been thinking of doing is just getting a foam mattress cover and rolling it up, and then sticking it under the sheet, as a bedrail (they sell some foam things that are essentially just stuck under the sheet -- this seems like a more economical way to do it). Then, I'll probably have about 4 inches to sleep in between the two!!

Good luck!! I know some people manage to nurse 2 (or more) through the night, but I can't handle it.

ETA: Oh, one thing I did was to put my snoogle (pregnancy pillow) next to DS1 - this keeps him much more contained. We also have pillows tucked between the two mattresses, so that he just bounces from those pillows over to the snoogle, and does less sundial sleeping (though still does some -- I constantly move him over)

[chocolatefish]

First thing we did was nightwean DS when he was 26 months. I wasn't pregnant then but could not get my head around the possibility of nursing two at night. I got pregnant about a month later!

Second thing we did was to get DS his own single alongside ours (at about 24 months) then move it to a separate corner of the same room at about 32 months. So he starts the night off in his own bed and comes into ours when he wants - usually sometime between 2 and 4am. He knows to come in between DH and I now.

When the baby comes I'll have the cot sidecarred on my side so that I am always between DS and the babe. And only nursing the babe!

My advice would be to picture what you can see working for your family and then setting things in motion asap to achieve it. Nightweaning was a major part of that for us.

[chocolatefish]

BTW pp the 5am feed was the absolute hardest one to drop for DS also! Eventually we just went with it, because it was a choice of either nurse him then or be up for the day at 5 - that was just too early! After a couple of months of that he eventually dropped it himself for a day or two and I persisted in keeping it that way. It took a bit of time but we got there...

[lookatreestar]

we have 2 full size beds and while ds was tiny i nursed dd to sleep in one bed then switched to the other to co sleep with ds. dh would sleep wherever he could fit

when nursing at night, i would lay on my side and nurse the baby and my dd would just hang over and nurse, then flop off when she got tired. or sometimes if she didn't want to hang over she would just snuggle into my back and snooze.

very rarely do they co-sleep next to each other, i am usually in between because ds tends to wake up searching for milk and scratches/wakes up dd. but if they are in a deep sleep they are fine next to each other and dh and i sneak off into the other bed so we can snuggle or stretch out

eta we never had a co sleeper or crib or pack and play. also i never officially night weaned so sometimes dd still nurses at night. it is pretty rare though, usually if she isn't feeling well or something.