[starlein26]

we sort of stumbled into it after a mandatory lll meeting at our birth center. they stated the benefit of having your infant at a proximal distance at night. well...that ended up being our bed! :LOL

 

[eclipse]

well, we didn't intend to fully cosleep with Liam. We had a cosleeper, and that's where I wanted him to sleep, because it would be easier for breastfeeding. I did plan to move him to a crib in another room when he stopped night nursing LOL so, i guess that might have been when he was, like, 3.5!). I have issues with being touched while I sleep due to past abuse. However, Liam wouldn't sleep anywhere but ON dh or i for months, so I guess he decided it was for him, and we got drug along for the ride. I planned to cosleep from the begining, but she prefered her space and slept first in her carseat, then in a bassinet, and eventually in a crib, until she decided at about 9 months that she'd rather sleep with us. This time around, I'm going in with no expectations - whatever works to get us all asleep is what we'll do.

 

[captain optimism]

We have one other bedroom in this apartment. It is up a flight of stairs. I had a baby in my belly and I couldn't feature giving birth just to put him up a flight of stairs! So I figured we would have him sleep in our room, close by. Gradually, that became sleeping in our bed.

 

[MilkyMcGee]

I like to sleep, and so does my son... if he's in bed with me!
I've had yummy sleep since ds started going through the night at 8 wks.

 

[CherryBomb]

I had never even heard of co-sleeping. Having her with me just felt right, plus it made taking care of her at night a lot easier!

 

[stashalou]

I wanted her near me but had not decided to cosleep. I had an arm's reach cosleeper where she would start the night. Then she would come into bed with me to nurse and I would just fall asleep with her in the bed. After a while I gave up the pretense of the cosleeper and just put her to bed in my bed. She's still there with no end in sight!!

stashalou

 

[lucyem]

My son hated his co-sleeper and I was too totally exhausted to deal. So he ended up in our bed. Even that exhausted I never moved at night and would wake up sore. He was thrilled.

 

[jempd]

I could have written lucyem's post. I was going to write: ds decided for us. The plan was for him to sleep in the co-sleeper but every time I put him in, he'd make these disgrunteld noises as if to say UH UH no way I don't think so till I relented and let him sleep with us and since I was working full time there was NO WAY I was going to put him any farther away from me at night than a co-sleeper--I just could not afford to lose as much sleep as it would take to come fully awake, go pick him up, sit up to nurse etc. I still don't see how people do that. And as it turned out, it all fell together very neatly. We slept fine with him in the bed, and I quickly got the knack of semi-waking up to nurse so that I got pretty much a full night's sleep from the beginning.

 

[katenyc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jempd ds decided for us.

Change this to dd and there you have it.

I had a c/s and (thankfully) my doula taught me to nurse lying down. At the beginning, when she pooped at every feeding, dh would get up and change her and put her back in the bassinet at the end of the bed. Eventually she didn't poop as much and out of sheer laziness/exhaustion we'd just leave her where she was. Needless to say when we finally tried a crib she did NOT like it much. Now she naps and starts the night on a blanket on the floor of our room, and by 2am latest she is nursing next to me.

I think dh is anxious to reclaim our nights, but dd is a rough go at night, so...

 

[ladybugchild77]

We bought a crib but it doesn't get much use - usually when I am getting her ready for a bath!!!

We were undecided on the issue but as soon as I held my dd in my arms I didn't want to let go!

She sleeps curled up next to me in a ball all night holding on and I sleep better then I have in years - I mean it!

She also likes to cozy up to the human furnace - my dh!!! It makes breastfeeding so much easier and I don't have to worry about her breathing or not becasue she is right next to me. It jsut feels so natural and I love it! My dh seems to like it to - especially when she coos at him in the morning and gives him a big grin...

 

[starlein26]

there's *so* no end in sight here...we recently pushed two king sized beds together...ds and i share one and dh is in the other... :LOL

 

[Rox5266]

I never heard of co-sleeping until after I was doing it. I had ds crib set up and he spent some time in the bassinet and some in the crib in the early months, but is much easier to just keep him in bed with us. Like a pp, I also had a c-section and could not be running back and forth to a seperate room to feed him in the early weeks. So I would nurse him in our bed, he would fall asleep, I would put him on the bed next to me, and that is how it started. I learned how to nurse lying down pretty early on and would feed him like that most of the time, in our bed. He is still with me, at 22 months, but dh moved to the couch after about 2 months - his choice.

Roxanne
Daniel 8/9/03

 

[earthcore]

We had planned to co-sleep from the beginning. I think we read about it in the Dr. Sears baby book. But after snuggling in the hospital bed after she was born, we just knew it was for us!

We do have a co-sleeper, but we use it to keep odds and ends handy, not for sleeping.

 

[Kira's mom]

Dd slept in her crib mos 3-6(We never even got the crib til' she was 3 months old because I didn't believe in buying ANYTHING for the baby until she was born) and by around 5am she was with us. Then it was 2am...finally dh suggested we just start her in our bed and leave her there. Now at 27 mos there she is. we just converted the crib to a full bed and she loves it ,but still sleeps with us. Most nights she'll wake up once or twice for a sip of milk from mommy. We aren't in a hurry to move her. She'll let us know.So it was dh who really started the co sleeping. As an infant my crib was right next to my mom's side of the bed.I slept in it until 4 yrs old!!! I used to say "face me mommy"I also crawled in with mom and dad as often as possible.So I guess my mom coslept with me 44 years ago.

 

[IansMommy]

My dd screamed for the first week she was home. After 7 days of little to no sleep, I put her in bed next to me and she stopped crying and fell asleep...the family bed was born.
The funny thing is, my dh and I SWORE we would never sleep with our children. We were going to let them cry it out, etc.
Just goes to show you that you never know what parenting is until you are there. We even bought a king size bed when I was pregnant with #2. Now there is enough room for all of us.

Mommy to Ian

: and Julia

 

[Patchfire]

When dd was first born, she was in a bassinet next to our bed (we just had a full size bed then!). After she outgrew the bassinet, she slept half in our bed, half in the crib for a little while. I started reading about co-sleeping and gradually decided it was actually safer - not to mention it meant dh and I would be getting more sleep (especially dh - he would go get dd, bring her to me in bed, and then sometimes take her back to the crib/get her back to sleep).

When we were able to move out of that apartment, we got a king-size bed (hooray!) and never looked back. Now we are

happily.

 

[ExuberantDaffodil]

While I was pregnant and right after DS was born, everyone told me NOT to co-sleep because it was too dangerous. I was terrified of co-sleeping. I had him in a bassinette next to my bed, which the poor dear hated, understandably. I then became a "closet" co-sleeper - I wouldn't admit it to anyone...

Like PP's, it just felt right. My babe didn't want to be so far from me and I didn't want to be far from him!

 

[AugustineM]

I never considered anything else. I rarely wanted to be apart from my baby, even if it was just a few feet away. We went through a rough sleep time from about 6-8 months, but I'm sure it would have been worse if he would have been in a crib or another room. Now, I absolutely love sleeping with him, and when I sometimes put him on a mattress in his room at the beginning of the night I miss him, and don't feel quite "right" until he's in our bed in the middle of the night. I don't think I would have even considered having my baby apart from me when he was newborn.

 

[birthmommom]

I didnt decide until dd was 1 year. I should have taken the hint when for the first 6 weeks she slept on me and thats it, then she did the bassenet, and car seat. I did the crib b/c everyone told me to, she hated it. I decided after year of waking up several times at night, and all of her hatred an crying about the crib that it was just easier to have her sleep with me. I found it was a lot easier to care for her when she was right next to me. And she loves it. Now we sidecar, she does pretty well with that.

 

[Kleine Hexe]

After getting up and walking across the house all night long for about a month I said forget this. I brought my baby to bed with me and I haven't looked back. My DH who was against sleeping started to complain and I told him he was more than welcome to sleep with us (baby and I) but if he didn't want to the guest bed was across the house. Funny, he chose to sleep with us than alone. :LOL

Now this is us