Hello, I'm new to this forum. My son is 10 months old and primarily breasted although he does eat a variety of finger foods in small quantities. He has slept in his crib since birth, mostly because I didn't really discover co-sleeping and attachment parenting until I was a parent. My feelings about co-sleeping and extended nursing have changed over these ten months and although he has slept in bed with us many times for part of the night or for naps, we have never really given co-sleeping a real try. He is still waking frequently, probably because of a combination of things - teething, habit, being highly active and reluctant to stop to nurse during the day as much as he probably should... I currently rock him to sleep for naps and bedtime and nurse when he wakes for the day and from naps as well as before bed (I also nurse on demand but he doesn't often demand it anymore, I pretty much have to offer and I tend to do it when he is groggy from sleep so that he will focus more on nursing everything else. I am sort of sad that he doesn't demand to be nursed anymore) His frequent waking (every two-three hours) is becoming hard on me and since I think he will continue to nurse at night because he's hungry and for comfort and i have no intention of letting him cry, I am looking for an option that will allow me more sleep time or at least horizontal time!
My question to you mamas is: Has anyone started co-sleeping late in the first year? Is it a lost cause? Right now, if I take him into my bed in the early hours he does fall asleep fairly quickly if he's already groggy but he mostly associates our bed with playtime with Daddy and will wake often there too. I have made a lot of mistakes when it comes to his sleep but it seems like he was just a newborn that needed to nurse every two hours and now he's a huge (24 lb) almost one year old and I think we both need to sleep better. Anyone think I could transition to co-sleeping now and/or have any ideas about how to do it best?
Thanks in advance for any thoughts
My question to you mamas is: Has anyone started co-sleeping late in the first year? Is it a lost cause? Right now, if I take him into my bed in the early hours he does fall asleep fairly quickly if he's already groggy but he mostly associates our bed with playtime with Daddy and will wake often there too. I have made a lot of mistakes when it comes to his sleep but it seems like he was just a newborn that needed to nurse every two hours and now he's a huge (24 lb) almost one year old and I think we both need to sleep better. Anyone think I could transition to co-sleeping now and/or have any ideas about how to do it best?
Thanks in advance for any thoughts