success with sidecar crib or co sleeper?

[clintonhillmama]

so baby's been in bed with us, which is fine since i tend to fall asleep while she's nursing and only wake when it's time for the next feed.....

but, i would like to put her in the cosleeper on the occasions when i'm awake at the end of the feed - i find i sleep better, and don't wake up with a stiff neck from some sort of cosleeping contortions i've been doing lately (and also did with ds when he was tiny).

anyone having success with a cosleeper or sidecarred crib? any tips or advice is appreciated!

[VickV]

We had great success with a cosleeper with Isabel -if I stayed awake thru the feeding, I could put her in the cosleeper and she did great. Olivia, OTOH, is having a lot of gas issues (best as I can tell) and sleeps more soundly ON me than she does on her own - so I nap her all day on her own, but if I'm sleeping anyways, I don't mind letting her sleep on me. Heck, if I'm just vegging sans Isabel during the day, I just let her sleep on the Boppy and I get caught up on the Firefly DVD set I got *last* Christmas

[Keeping up]

Lurking (because I am trying to find info on a new crib mattress so I can move my 6.5 month old out of my co-sleeper).

I love my co-sleeper. I have used it with two babes - they slept beside me for 7 months until they can possibly sit up on their own (then I think the co-sleeper becomes unsafe). I nurse to sleep, put babe in the co-sleeper until babe wakes. He (both 'he's) would nurse and then either stay the rest of the night or got back in the co-sleeper depending on my sleep situation.

I am not a great co-sleeper for your exact reasons - I get contorted into odd positions and STILL think I will smother the poor kid so he gets way too much space of our queen bed (and dh and I get squished together ... which is how we ended up with our 'well loved, not so well planned' baby #4)

Even when fussy, I will put my hand into the co-sleeper and hang on to babe's hand, stroke face, touch head etc - it sometimes puts babe right back to sleep (and sometimes not).

I love it - and if you lived near Toronto, I would send you my co-sleeper as I am now done with it!!!

[YummyYumYumMama]

we do well w/our sidecar. sometimes she sleeps in there and sometimes she sleeps on my chest!

[starry_mama]

We didn't sidecar our crib until Julian was born, it was a place for Danny (who was 2 at the time). I've never even tried to get a little baby to sleep anywhere but tucked into me (I have had 2 extremely cuddly babies so far), the sidecar is only for the big kids.

[brooklynbabymama]

We haven't even bought a crib yet, don't want to make room for it until necessary. I have a cosleeper next to the bed, but it does get used more during the day. She always falls asleep on me while nursing or in the sling, so usually at night I crash along with her. My pediatrician discourages responding so quickly to her at night (they sleep train by three months), but she goes back to sleep faster if she doesn't have to cry for me. But if I can get her into the cosleeper right after she goes down for her first sleep of the night, she's good for three to five hours in it.

And I totally hear you about the contortions, I've taken almost all of the pillows to build myself a throne of pressure points.

[Friday13th]

We got a hand-me-down cosleeper. It holds an awful lot of laundry and two cats pretty nicely. Although it does serve as a nice bed rail.

Ash pretty much only sleeps nestled into one of our armpits or on our chests. And as of right now, I'm so happy to be able to sleep on my back again that I'm usually pretty comfortable.

[mandalin24kd]

I'm with you. It does hold a lot of laundry and it does make a great bedrail!!!!

Xaeli had no interest in sleeping in it from day one. It didn't help that I would fall asleep during the feeding and not wake up to move her out. Now I have an 18 month old that sleeps across my head, or with a foot kicking me in the face or completely sideways so that our roomy king size now seems like a twin.......... My husband has taken to sleeping on the couch......

But if I hadn't been so sleep deprived and lazy, I think it would have worked great to move her into. I think this next baby I'm going to tweek the sleep arrangements a little. I'm even considering putting a twin bed next to us. I don't know if I can handle co-sleeping both of them. And I'm afraid that Xaeli might lay on the baby or try to push her off.

On a side note, we got her a "baby" to start getting her used to the idea. She sat there cooing and stroking the baby saying "it okaya! No cwy bebe". I left the room, came back and she had the heater vent off and was using her feet to stomp the baby down the chute!!!!
Gotta love it!

[clintonhillmama]

i guess my real questions are:
do you guys stay awake during feeds and then put baby in the cosleeper?

or do you dreamfeed and manage not to wake up in the morning with a bolt of pain running down the side of your neck? (i'm nursing side lying)

Originally Posted by brooklynbabymama

My pediatrician discourages responding so quickly to her at night (they sleep train by three months), but she goes back to sleep faster if she doesn't have to cry for me.

OT, but your ped is michel cohen, right? i have a lot of friends that see him, and have heard great things about him, and i love his book- he is very laissez faire, except on the sleep training front. fwiw, be prepared for your baby not to be sleep trained by 3 months, and you'll find a lot of people disagree with sleep training as a general concept. but we did sleep training with ds at 4 mos :, i had to to maintain my own sanity!

[YummyYumYumMama]

Originally Posted by clintonhillmama

i guess my real questions are:
do you guys stay awake during feeds and then put baby in the cosleeper?

or do you dreamfeed and manage not to wake up in the morning with a bolt of pain running down the side of your neck? (i'm nursing side lying)

i nurse in a reclined position and dreamfeed (great word). when i wake up (if she doesnt need a dipe or more boob) i either lay down and roll her into the sidecar (she's only a few inches away from me) or lay her on my chest. either way i go right to sleep after.

[frogleymom]

nak

We didn't sidecar until DD#2 was 14 months... I wish I'd done it from day one with DD#1. I usually dreamfeed (I love that term too!!), but while I'm engorged I have trouble sleeping while nursing, so I'm usually still awake when she finishes. Since we're tandeming now, DD#2 usually nurses to sleep, then I shove her over to the sidecar... DD#3 nurses to sleep and then I just roll more to my back while keeping her curled up next to me on my arm. I'm usually a stomach or side sleeper anyway and I've found that a good thick pillow directly under my neck definitely helps with the side-lying (like a small bolster or something).

Emily

[clintonhillmama]

today i went to the chiro and hopefully am on the mend. hoorah! esp. since the pain has moved into my shoulder and is radiating down my arm.:

i'm going to look for a bolster tomorrow. neck, BE HEALED!

i'm a really heavy sleeper - sometimes i don't even know that how many times baby's gotten up to nurse and my husband tells me - so it's hard for me to get her into the cosleeper. but dh is now on baby moving duty, so hopefully that'll help too.

[brooklynbabymama]

Originally Posted by clintonhillmama

OT, but your ped is michel cohen, right? i have a lot of friends that see him, and have heard great things about him, and i love his book- he is very laissez faire, except on the sleep training front. fwiw, be prepared for your baby not to be sleep trained by 3 months, and you'll find a lot of people disagree with sleep training as a general concept. but we did sleep training with ds at 4 mos :, i had to to maintain my own sanity!

I think it's hilarious that whenever I mention sleep training, everybody immediately knows I'm with Tribeca Pediatrics. Dr. Cohen is notorious on that front, but I absolutely love the practice otherwise. Though my uncle's wife said letting her new son CIO was one of the more depressing things she's had to do...

Probably why, for now, I'm going to let DD do as she wants. Luckily, I'm not so uncomfortable that it's worth making the little monkey sleep somewhere besides my arm unless I'm already awake to move her. But it's brilliant to get DH moving the baby into the sleeper...we'll have to try that!

[clintonhillmama]

Originally Posted by brooklynbabymama

I think it's hilarious that whenever I mention sleep training, everybody immediately knows I'm with Tribeca Pediatrics. Dr. Cohen is notorious on that front, but I absolutely love the practice otherwise. Though my uncle's wife said letting her new son CIO was one of the more depressing things she's had to do...

Probably why, for now, I'm going to let DD do as she wants. Luckily, I'm not so uncomfortable that it's worth making the little monkey sleep somewhere besides my arm unless I'm already awake to move her. But it's brilliant to get DH moving the baby into the sleeper...we'll have to try that!

i know it's not very MDC-ish, but as far as sleep training is concerned, i'm not against it, and we just bit the bullet and let ds CIO. and yes, it was very, very hard - but the worst was over in 2 nights. there are a lot of setbacks along the way, but now he's a great sleeper and napper. i wouldn't even give it much thought until baby's a few months older. and it's a really personal choice, you have to do what's best for you and your family. i totally understand the anti-CIO side of things, but none of us were sleeping well when together!

but on the co sleeper front, pearl is doing great sleeping in it, and she spent most of last night in it - i actually woke up and moved her myself!