Co-sleeping newbie

885 Views 12 Replies 10 Participants Last post by KatSG, Oct 13, 2003

Organique Gal

Discussion Starter · Sep 29, 2003

Co-sleeping is not as glamorous as it's made out to be... My baby will be 3 weeks old tomorrow, and I'm sleeping in a twin size bed while I'm staying with my dad. I have a cradle next to my bed, but it's a royal pain having to get up to get the baby to nurse every three hours through the night, and I'd like the baby to be able to sleep with me. So.... Last night I tried it! I'm getting the nursing thing down well enough now that I can get Micah latched on in the dark, while lying on my side. Anyways, so I put Micah next to me, about 1 ft from the side of the bed, and another 1 ft between me and him. This left me barely enough room to lie on my side next to him. After about 15 minutes I woke up, and he was snuggled right up next to me, I was hanging off the side of the bed, and there was a good two feet of empty bed on the other side of my little guy!!! LOL! He had wiggled his way over till he was right up against me. So... I moved him over again, and drifted off... same thing, except now I'm getting REALLY stiff from not being able to roll over, switch sides, hanging off the bed, etc... I guess I'm just wondering if this is a common problem. For crying out loud, Micah isn't even rolling over yet, but he does know how to wiggle to where ever he wants to be! I sleep with him on my chest sometimes too, and will wake up with a crick in my neck because he's wiggled so far up under my chin that I can't move my head! LOL He's a real snuggle bug. Today I was holding him on my lap, and he'd fallen asleep and I was watching him sleep, cause he's so cute. He peeked at me out of one eye and gave me the most adorable lop-sided grin ever, as if to say... "oh, good, you're still there!"

Anyways, just thought I'd share my co-sleeping experiences thus far, and see if there's anyone out there that can commiserate with me... Good thing nursing releases "sleepy hormones" cause otherwise I'd be going crazy with sleep deprivation!!!

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sunmountain

· #2 · Sep 29, 2003

My dh and I have been cosleeping with one or more of our 4 children for 9 years

I went throught the twin bed situation after ds1 was born, and it was really hard. See if someone can give you a good shoulder rub in the mornings to loosen up your stiff neck, hot showers help a lot, too. I even had to go to a chiropractor for a while b/c I injured myself from falling asleep with my arm above my head for too many nights. Try to sleep on your back with a rolled up towel under your neck, and your knees up--you can put a pillow under them-- this will help the muscles relax and keep your spine straight, you can remove it if it gets too uncomfortable. And stretch a lot during the day to keep those muscles from becoming too stiff.

Can you push the bed up against a wall and stuff the gap with blankets so you don't have to worry so much about him falling out?

we finally moved to a king sized bed, and even after the last one moves out, I won't be going back to anything smaller!

congrats on your new babe. much love to you, mama

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Mona

· #3 · Sep 29, 2003

I was just wondering if you could push your bed up against the wall? That might give you a bit more room?

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Organique Gal

Discussion Starter · #4 · Sep 29, 2003

This is going to be a long explanation about why I can't push my bed up against the wall... LOL!

We live sort of in the country on a gulf island and there are TONS of spiders here (HUGE ones). We have spent a LOT of time and money trying to get rid of them, or at the very least, keep them outside, but to no avail. (PS If anyone knows how to exterminate spiders, PLEASE share your knowledge!!!) The house is built on a hill, and my bedroom is on the lower level, so the one wall is up against the hill, and there's a crawl space behind there for storage (we call it the "crypt", half jokingly). Personally, I think that's where the spiders are coming in, cause when I had my bed up against that wall, I was constantly having to check for spiders, and one night a spider spread a web of about 30 itty bitty tiny spiders on my duvet! ICK!!!! We immediately moved the bed away from that wall. Another wall is a door and wood burning stove/brick fireplace. The third wall is all windows and a closet and another door to the outside. I now have the head of my bed up against an inner wall, so that's why I can't have my bed up against a wall... I'd rather be stiff than have spiders in my bed!

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sunmountain

· #5 · Sep 29, 2003

you can use one of those toddler rails, but you have to be very careful with them. I used to stuff a full sized pillow up against it so the babe didn't fall "into" it, kwim?
Another time we butted the bed against the back of a dresser. Not very feng shui, but it worked

Can you tell that situations change a lot over time! I swear I had 3 different methods for each kid! :LOL

you'll figure it out, there is always a solution. and I hear ya about the spiders. we have so many, I wake up every morning with bites. every corner in this house has been a home to the buggers at one point or another. It's a losing battle, I can't wait to move.

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StarMama

· #6 · Sep 29, 2003

No solution, but I feel ya! Ds likes to sleep on his side, snuggled up against me, and somehow in the morning my behind is halfway off the bed! And its a KING sized bed!

And when he's on my chest his little head gets *right* under my chin, and I feel like I have to hold my head up because its *right* on his little soft spot. I wake up sore and stiff a lot....

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Lyra

· #7 · Sep 29, 2003

I'll second the suggestion of a toddler rail. Dh and I sleep with 8 month old Ds between us in a queen size bed but as Ds loves to snuggle up to (and kick! ) Mama it doesn't exactly feel luxuriously large. I actually use a toddler rail on my side of the bed so that I'm not hanging over the edge. I find it actually helps to make me a little more comfortable though I'm still squished of course

The other thing I do sometimes is put a pillow between Ds and I. I don't position it so that it *completely* separates us. I usually place it so that the top part of his body is still snuggled up to mine but his lower half is separated from mine. This way he doesn't tend to roll or move towards me as much because the pillow gets in his way. So he either stays relatively where he began at the beginning of the night or he rolls toward Dh and *he* ends up with the space problem

LOL!

Hope this helps.
Good luck!

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kate42

· #8 · Sep 29, 2003

No solution, just sympathy. A few nights ago, I woke up to the feeling of little feet kicking my behind. :LOL

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Eman'smom

· #9 · Sep 29, 2003

Oh I can so relate, first off we have a king, and I cherish my bed space, I don't even like sharing with the cat LOL, however I am for this sweet little girl, however she insists on sleeping right up against me, the middle of the bed won't do. She has to be pressed up next to me. I am up nearly all night because I'm so uncomfortable. DD is a great little sleeper and only wakes up once to twice, and I'm up because she's against me, it's so unfair. Don't even get me started on the neck and jaw pain.

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Caring Touch

· #10 · Oct 12, 2003

We deal with spiders too and I looked into it and found out about Eucalyptus Oil.

I put some oil on a cotton ball and generously go over the door and window frames and haven't had a single one in over a year.

HTH.

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Organique Gal

Discussion Starter · #11 · Oct 13, 2003

I'll definitely have to try that! Thanks... so far we have heard walnut or chestnut shells, but we tried the walnut, and it didn't really do much at all... We had ground powder though, so maybe that's why? Who can say... LOL

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Turtle Woman

· #12 · Oct 13, 2003

I sleep with DS on his back in the crook of my armpit. I put him on top of a pillow and my arm is also on the pillow. When I need to change sides nursing I roll him on top of me and put the pillow to the other side and switch him over. I hope that makes sense. This really helps my neck and shoulder pain. I also sometimes lay his body across me under my breasts and leave the pillow by my side so that my elbow is on the pillow and his head is on my arm. I prefer this way but DS doesn't always find my bony body very cozy.

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KatSG

· #13 · Oct 13, 2003

My baby does the scootching thing, too. She would find my boob and try to latch on herself. She's still too little to do this right so I started wearing my pajama top to bed. Now she snuggles daddy. So cute!

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