So many choices …. is any one single choice right?
With our first kiddo, co-sleeping wasn’t really talked about all that much. At least not where I was living at the time. So though she slept in our room for a while; it was in a bassinet which was not located next to the bed.
I was nursing her, so it made sense to have her in our room … but the importance of having her really close by wasn’t really discussed by my doctor at the time. And, every time she woke to feed, we both had to get out of bed.
Ten years later, we had L and my doctor talked about the importance of having her nearby … but safely. I was leery to have her actually in our bed, as I worried about rolling over in the night and suffocating her.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t use a co-sleeper that attached to the bed. For us, this worked really well. Particularly because when she started to stir or fuss to be fed, I could just roll over and nurse her. There was no getting either of us out of bed, which meant in the long run we were actually both sleeping better at night.
But not everyone agrees that co-sleeping is safe. I think, in large part, because a lot of people associate co-sleeping with having the baby right in bed with you. There are happy mediums though. And there are certainly pros and cons to both sides of the situation.
This discussion on Circle of Moms is an interesting one and shows that people are incredibly passionate about the topic.
I get that many moms feel having a baby in their room is bad for their marriage, but at the same time, how many of us that have multiple children have much alone time anyway?
And frankly, for the first six months after L was born, I didn’t even want my husband looking at me, much less thinking about touching me. I was tired, cranky, and probably suffering from some postpartum depression.
Other moms cite that babies don’t sleep as well or transition to their own beds as well when they’ve slept with their parents. I found both of these to be untrue in our situation; L went to a crib at six months and while she slept like a dream, I was the one up every 1/2 hour to go upstairs and make sure she was still breathing.
But I’m curious to get your thoughts. Did you co-sleep? What did you use? How long did you co-sleep?
