- how old was baby when you started co-sleeping?
We co-slept from Day 1.
- did your DH/DP sleep in the bed as well, and if not was he okay about being bumped out or did it affect your relationship?
We all slept together.
- do you sleep on a normal bed or mattress on the floor like the guidelines say?
Normal Bed - when DD was tine we had her in something called "My Little Bed", which is like an insert thing that you put in your bed to stop anyone rolling on her.
- do I really have to sleep with baby on the outside (instead of between DH and I)? I'm scared she'll fall off the bed!
We put a rolled towel or pillow under the edge of the mattress to raise the edge and prevent rolling.
- what do you have in terms of pillows/sheets/blankets? The guidelines say to only sleep with a light blanket but it's winter, I'll freeze without my sheet and doona!
I can't remember, but I think we used several blankets in winter...
- do I still wrap baby up? And if you monitor room temperature (we have a little gro egg to tell us the temp) what should it be ideally?
DD was wrapped for about 3-4 months. We didn't monitor temperature.
- how and when did you transition baby back to their own bed?
DD had a brief period when she was about 3 1/2 when she slept in her own bed, but now at 5, she's back with us (mostly because our house is freezing and I don't see the point of heating a room just for her - plus she's like a human hot water bottle...)
- for daytime sleeps do you put baby in the bed or their own basinette/cot?
Yes, we had a bassinette with handles that we used to carry around.
- how old was baby when you started co-sleeping?
she slept with us from day 1, occasionally going into the bassinet next to us, but that was very rarely. She started sleeping in her cot at around 6-8 months i think it was, but initially the cot was against out bed, with the rail taken off, so she still had access to me/our bed.
- did your DH/DP sleep in the bed as well, and if not was he okay about being bumped out or did it affect your relationship?
Yep DH slept in the bed too, he didnt care at all, in fact he was the one that suggested co-sleeping/bed sharing in the first place
- do you sleep on a normal bed or mattress on the floor like the guidelines say?
Both, but not because thats what the guidelines said. Our bed frame broke so we had to use the mattress on the floor for awhile lol. but that was only for a month or so, other than that, just in our normal bed.
- do I really have to sleep with baby on the outside (instead of between DH and I)? I'm scared she'll fall off the bed!
We alternated, depending what side she fed from last. But she nearly always slept in my arms anyway. but if you're worried about bubs falling off the bed, could you get a side rail for the bed? y'know the ones meant for toddlers?
- what do you have in terms of pillows/sheets/blankets? The guidelines say to only sleep with a light blanket but it's winter, I'll freeze without my sheet and doona!
We had normal pillows, and normal blankets. Which was just a sheet and a doona. That was warm enough for us, but on really cold nights we also used a heater to warm the room up.
- do I still wrap baby up? And if you monitor room temperature (we have a little gro egg to tell us the temp) what should it be ideally?
We used to wrap DD in the really early days, when we did it for night time sleep, we'd just use a very thin wrap, and a fairly light suit (depending how cold it was, obviously, it was abit of trial and error) once she was abit older and wasn't wrapped, we just put her in what we'd wear, and just add a singlet and socks. Because she has our body heat to keep her warm as well as the blankets
- how and when did you transition baby back to their own bed?
as i said earlier, DD was about 6-8 months, but that was because SHE wanted it, she wasnt sleeping very well compared to what she used to, so what we did was we put her cot right on our bed, and got rid of the side rail so she was still with us, but had her own space, ITMS. we slowly transitioned her to sleeping on her own in the cot, after a month or two, we put the side rail back on the cot, but left it where it was, and then after a few more months, we moved the cot to the other side of the room, and waited for her to get used to that, and the next step is moving her into her own room, which will probably be when it gets abit warmer as we have a heater in our room, and its quite cold atm!
between swtiching from each type of going to sleep, we always made sure she was thoroughly used to it, and wasn't still putting up fights going to sleep. she didnt overly like it initially, for say maybe the first 2-3 nights, but she got used to it, and still loves her cot and going to sleep, so it was more a fear of the unknown thing IMO. she didnt put up a huge fight and scream or anything like that, but more a whinge and wanted cuddles etc. which we gave her until she was calm and happy. At this time, we also taught her to put herself to sleep too, no CIO or anything. Just a matter of letting her figure out how to self settle really.
- for daytime sleeps do you put baby in the bed or their own basinette/cot?
Nope. she either slept on our bed, in her side-car cot, or on us whether that was in a carrier/sling, or just being held
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