Your opinion....Co-sleeping

My 2 Cents...I have co-slept with every one of my 4 children. I breast fed them all, and it was just easier to nurse them in bed, and they slept much better in bed with me than in a crib. We tried the crib thing with the first two, but it never worked for us..

My peditrician told me that co-sleeping is fine, and studies have shown a correlation to reduced SIDS rates; something to do with baby mimicing the mom's breathing much as they did in the womb. I cannot back this up, as he mentioned it to me at a visit with my daughter when she was an infant (she is now almost 2) and I did not ask for documentation, nor did I care to receive it....but it is what he said to me.

I feel that the best way to put an infant to bed is the way that works for YOU! There is no one right answer for parenting on any issue!!

I was very much against co-sleeping.

Severe reflux that caused aspiration in sleep changed my thoughts forever.


It's amazing how many things I said "I will NEVER EVER do that" before I was a parent have changed dramatically now that I have children.  Especially when it comes to their health (like choking on their own vomit in their sleep)..

My husband and I co-slept with our son for most of the first 10 months.  Initially it was because it was convenient, but then when winter came, it was because it was too cold to have him sleep alone.  We lived in a rat-hole ****ty apartment in NY where the landlord would turn the heat off at 9 p.m., turn it on at 6 a.m. until 9 a.m., then turn it on again at 6 p.m. until 9 p.m.  As you can imagine...in NY in winter...it was COLD.  We finally moved out of that apartment into a better place (with similar heat issues though) - in January.  The new p lace was a- better apartment, but had the same heat problems...except he'd leave for the weekend to his girlfriend's house in Long Island and turn off the heat AND ho****er for the entire weekend! After that first winter, my husband moved him to his own bed...he cried and cried and cried...for about 30 minutes, then went to sleep.  We went through that for about 3 nights, and it was never a problem for him after that.  The following two winters in that apartment...I'd put my husband's tube socks on him - they came all the way to his thighs - then a pair of long johns and the footy pjs just to keep him warm, then sneak in there a few times at night to pull the blankets back up.

When he was really little and sleeping with us...he'd usually sleep in the crook of my arm...my fat Siamese cat would be in the other, and I couldn't move.  I'm a very light sleeper, so I always woke up at the littlest movement or sound.  Heck...my cats STILL can't sneak in my room w/o me knowing it. 

I'd just say if you and/or your hubby are deep sleepers -ie, a bomb could go off in the next room and they'd not notice - then I'd get one of those co-sleeper basinet things to go beside the bed...but if you're a light sleeper...and can find a way to ensure no blankets or pillows could possibly fall on the baby's face, if you're comfortable with it...go for it.