How do you co-sleep??

[naomi54]

I was just wondering how everyone co-sleeps with their baby.

When Lachie ends up in our bed, i put him in our bed with my arm around him, kinda like im holding him but we are laying down.
We do have a closer and secure sleeper, but only use that when he starts off the night in our bed.

Does your baby sleep snuggled into your arm/body (the way we do) or do they sleep just freely next to you?

I like him sleeping with us, but when he is snuggled into me (not using his bed) i find i can only sleep for an hr or 2 before i wake up b/c my arm is dead or has pins and needles in it from him laying on it, im too scared of letting him lay freely b/c he is so young 5 1/2 weeks.
The bed is pretty cool, and he does like it, but its big and bulky and gives Rick and i less room in our bed and we cant snuggle against him like we would like to.

[trinnie]

We co-slept with DS for the first few months and it was the best thing! Helped enormously with breastfeeding.
I did it with him snuggled in my arms as you describe. I can't remember the pins and needles though. I was not comfortable letting him sleep freely at that young age too! I don't think I ever had a really really deep sleep though but I could breastfeed and not have to fully wake up - he'd just latch on when he needed.

Good luck.

[*Efjay*]

I have co-slept with all of my babies. I usually just have them inbetween DH & I to lay freely. Isla doesn't like to be in the middle though so she is on the outside (which does freak me out a bit). I do tend to lay with my arm up & around her head. Not actually touching her but just like a guard. But once she is asleep for the night I tend to just make sure the blanket/sheet is tucked under her so that if she did happen to roll towards the edge she will be on top of the edge of the sheet rather then actually falling out. but I wake the moment she moves so I am pretty relaxed that she wont fall out.

Another thing you could try is sleeping head to foot. I know its not the most ideal set up but I found it more comfy to sleep at the other end of the bed then DH, it just gave me & the baby more room.

[christy]

Now that Jovie is crawling we've just changed. Before then we would bring her into our bed in between us with my arm up over the top of her head (hmmm... make sense??) and then she would be curled up against me. Now I've put a mattress on the ground in the girls room & I go in and lay on the mattress with Jovie & she squirms all over. I can lay any way I want now, which I love. The hard thing is when Matilda wants to join in!!

[Aranah]

I sleep with Leo on the outer side and I sleep on my side facing him with my arm above my head, DP sleeps with us also. My shoulders get very sore and I get a sore neck. He's a heavy boy and I can't imagine lying with my arm under his head though.

He lies on his side usually and faces me, I roll him on his back if I see him doing this, but usually he rolls back in during the night. I find it uncomfortable and I worry about it, but it's just been way too cold for him to sleep on his own. I usually get him in his bassinette for the first sleep of the night but he wakes up all cold and ends up staying in our bed.

When he's in his bassinette, I sprawl out on my back, oooh it's so nice to do that and not worry.

[Ambah]

When Aidyn was small (probably up until about 4 months old) I would sleep with him in the crook of my arm - with his head sort of nestled near my armpit if that makes sense?
As he got a bit older we let him sleep freely on the bed between us, but I don't think I slept very deeply, as it was a double bed and DP is a very heavy sleeper, so I was always a bit on edge about whether he would be safe.
From about 8 months I moved Aidyn's cot into our room, took one of the sides off, and pushed it between the wall and our bed, so it was like an extension of our bed, yet we finally had space again! I loved having it like this... it was easy to access him, and we all happily slept like this until he was about 14 months when we decided to move him back into his room.

[Julie Doula]

Hi Naomi (love your name BTW, my little brother was nearly a Naomi! He ended up a "Colin"!)
What worked for us is the "side-car" arrangement that we read about in a Sears & Sears book. We put the cot right up next to our bed, with the side fully down (it was a nice kind of cot that would do this!) I put a towel over the bumpy hinge bit. We still had all our space and little baby had her space. But in the night, I could put out my hand and pat her back, feel her breath or (later) pop the dummy back in (shhh! don't tell La Leche!) I could roll her to me to breastfeed and got away with months of never having to sit up or open my eyes for night-time breastfeeding. (I'm very in to short-cuts). When I wanted to feed her on the other side, I'd put her on top of me, roll over, pull her into my side and glug glug away she'd go. When she was all finished, I could gently roll her back into her little nook. She did not seem to need winding for her night feeds. We'd both just go back to sleep. This worked for all three of our girls.

[Edensmumma]

have u tried doing what u are doing but with bub on a worn out pillow... kinda makes them more at your body height and gets rid of the pins and needles... either that or i also sometimes do the tips to toes thingy like i think fionajill said....

[Astrid]

Have a sidecar arrangement set-up at the moment. DD either sleeps in the cot or up beside me, often head on our bed, kneeling in hers. Prior to the sidecar she would sleep in between us, when she wasn't so little we would sleep back to back, her head nestled in the curve at the back of my neck. I really liked sleeping that way, I always knew where she was, I could feel her breathing and in the colder weather would keep both our backs warm. It would also keep her up out of the way of the bedding.

[BellyBelly]

You ladies will have to read my feedback on the hotmilk conference, there was a very interesting talk about co-sleeping!

[Baby~amore`]

where can we see it Kelly ?

[Ambah]

Here Trish: https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...ad.php?t=43866

[~Saram~]

We have a mesh bedrail on my side and DD sleeps between me and the bedrail. We also have a cushion that lights up specifically made for co-sleeping that goes between her and my DH as he is scared of rolling on her. I sleep on my side facing her with my upper arm slightly over her if she is unsettled. She also sleeps on my chest occassionally. I love co-sleeping but I do wake up stiff and sore occassionally from sleeping in the one possy all night

[naomi54]

Thanks ladies, its good to hear different ways we can co-sleep.

~saram~ where can you get that pillow thing from?? Rick is also scared of rolling onto him during the night.

Might try what edensmum suggested about the pillow, see if that helps keep the pins and needles at bay.

If that doesnt work, to gain back the room in our bed, even though we dont have alot of room but enough room for the cot to come next to my bed and put down one side, like alot of you have suggested.

Julia Doula: thankyou, i like my name too lol

Fiona Jill: if you knew what Rick was like in bed especially with his feet, you wouldnt suggest the head to toe thing LMAO, i often get kicked in the legs, or loose the bottom half of the bed cos he hasy sprawled his legs out lol

Thanks Kelly am off to read it now

[*Efjay*]

LOL Naomi

[BellyBelly]

So when you breastfeed your babies in bed, do you do what that study found? Arm behind your head on the pillow, baby to breast and your knees up around the baby, your body like a C shape?

[expat]

Yep Kelly, that's exactly the position we use. I have his feet at my hips and my knees up and that kinda keeps him fixed on his side so he doesn't have to crane his neck to get the boob.

Logan sleeps between our pillows. Our bed is 180 wide and 200 long, so there's plenty of room for all 3 of us. He is really good at spinning on the spot, so he ends up with his head in my armpit and his dad smelling his feet or the other way around often enough! He has a lightweight cotton blanket of his own and we use 2 doona's (the Scandinavian way...makes sleep so much more peaceful!) so he shouldn't get too hot but he does end up having a snuggle under his dad's doona in the mornings to let me get some extra shuteye.

[naomi54]

When i breast fed that is exactly how i did it. I even find i do it now even though he is bottle fed but my his head is in the nook of my arm, it feels perfect and so comfortable that way.

expat: lol at the way Logan rotates in bed, thats the thing we are worried about, if he rotates at all when sleeping freely that he/we might hurt him in some way. Although rick cant snuggle like that but he has him snuggled right next to him, but wont sleep like it, i end up having to take him and get him to snuggle into me or put him into his little bed.