Co-sleeping advice

[sequins]

I need advice from other moms who co-sleep. We've been co-sleeping for a few months now. Since the baby still nurses couple of times at night, that's the best way I can get some sleep. Recently, she's started rolling over and sleeping facing me. If I move away a little bit to give her space, she moves over too.  I don't know if this is dangerous or normal. She is 7.5 months now. I take all the other precautions. No sheets or covers, no soft bedding, no chance to fall from bed etc. Do your co-sleeping kids do this?
Another thing - How long does the co-sleeping continue? I want to eventually move her to a pnp in our room but the second we put her in, she starts screaming. She only sleeps if she can hold my shirt and can sense that I'm nearby.Have I waited too long to make the change?

I know I know I should have put her in the crib earlier or whatever but I couldn't bring myself to, ok? t panics me to not have her close by at night.  So don't flame me. I

[textbookcase]

It's fine! She is old enough to move over if she needs to and you are a co-sleeping, BFing mom and you're hyper-aware of her.

Co-sleeping continues as long as you want it to continue. If you want her to transition to her own bed, try having her sleep with a square cut from a shirt of yours or something, so she has that security item.

C co-slept until she was nearly 3. K was never a big co-sleeper and slept in the PNP in the room basically from birth. B slept with me until she was 2ish.

[cleo29]

I would perhaps put your shirt on the mattress, if it can fit, like it is wearing it. It will have your comforting scent.

I never co-slept, so I can't say when to do what. For us, both girls slept better when we moved them to their own rooms, but I was not breast feeding. If you want her to make that transition, perhaps start with naps?

[indianchica]

We coslept. We both (DH and I) loved it and the baby did too. We moved our daughter out when she was about 3. I know that's really old, but we knew it would be our last kid and we were all happy with the arrangement.

[panicfoot]

I normally slept facing him on my side and he slept on his back. He sometimes would roll over and put his back to me and we would spoon, but he never faced me that I recall.

We co-slept until he was 20 months, at which point, he was still nursing 3-5 times during the night. I wasn't producing enough BM to justify my really limited diet and I was starting to resent the restrictions and the round-the-clock pumping and/or nursing, so we sleep trained.

For us, I kind of wish we had done it sooner, but I don't regret anything. I do miss the baby spooning, though

[sarahbear]

I co slept and always snuggled close with my baby. I think you're fine. It sounds normal to me.

[BaliHai]

It's fine. She will turn her head if she can't breathe.

Re: when to move her: by almost 8 months old, you're probably going to have to do sleep-training to get her to sleep elsewhere. H and I read independently that the 8-11 month timeframe is not a good time to do it, but that could have been lies. lol. Either way we failed hard at sleep training, and L co-sleeps in our bed from the middle of the night on, so I'm not any real help on this, sorry.

[FastHands]

I didn't cosleep, but we kept the RnP right next to the bed until DS was 7mo and was hitting his head on the top of it. I was convinced he wouldn't sleep well without me given how it was always a challenge to get him to sleep in the RnP. He slept SO much better in his crib. I did like rub his swaddle on myself, lol, before I put him in it, so that it would still smell like me. So doing that or like someone else said, a bit of one of your shirts in there with her, could help a lot.

Also, do you put her down when she's still awake? That was a BIG factor for DS. If I rocked him until he was asleep and then put him down, he'd wake up and freak out. Eventually I got him to the point where he'd be heavy-lidded, but not quite asleep, then I'd put him in the crib and pat him gently a few times, then haul ass. He'd cry for a few minutes, but it was less jarring then waking up somewhere totally different than where he was when he fell asleep, which makes perfect sense when you think about it.

[CurlyQ284]

I moved DS around 4 months because he only wanted to sleep on my chest and he was getting too heavy and it was getting hard to breathe (he's huge).

He hated sleeping in the PNP or bassinet so we put a crib in our room. I rolled up a towel and put it into a U shape and put it under the sheet and mattress pad so he felt snuggled. 15 minutes before bedtime, I would put a t-shirt on the sheet and put a heating pad on top and let it heat on low for 15 minutes. He would have fallen asleep on me already by this point, so we removed the shirt and heating pad and put him inside the u.

My milk supply stunk so he was on formula by then. If he was BFing I would just do whatever helps everyone sleep.

[whiskeyandwine]

We don't always co-sleep but when Isaac is in my bed he insists on being RIGHTNEXTTOME!! Drives me nuts. I don't worry about him, though, because he can roll and wiggle to be where he wants to be.

You're doing great, don't be so hard on yourself!

[flamingeaux]

I have no advice on moving, but wanted to say our 13 month old still sleeps with us in the bed. He snuggles way into me too.

[wannabe]

Dude. We co-slept till she was damn near in preschool (so, almost 4). I wish I hadn't babied her so much - she slept exactly once in the pretty crib we bought for her!

But yeah, it definitely cut down on the sleep deprivation. It was worth it for us.

[Queen Mamadala]

My 13 month co-sleeps. She sleeps in the crook of my arm. My older kids slept in the same position for a while, too. Dd1 and ds2 slept near me, but on their backs by 8-9 months. They all slept with me nightly until 21-23 months, and every so often after that usually when my exH was deployed or out of town. I liked having them in bed with me even when they were older.

[cabbagecabbage]

It's fine. We co-slept with her up in my armpit most of the time. At 18 months, I moved her to the side-car crib and night weaned. At 26 months she went into her own room. Transitions were smooth but I was sure she was ready too.

[miso]

We are the worst.

Our kid is still with us.

She'll be two in a few weeks.

I didn't even breastfeed. LOL.

[sharknado]

I still co sleep with my almost three year old. I love the snuggles.

[ciescalove]

Cosleeping is the only way I get sleep these days, but I'm terrified of her falling off, so she sleeps in the crook of my arm mostly. She starts in her crib but by 1 or so I am in there more than I'm not trying to put her pacifier back or pat her butt and I just bring her in with me.

[rugbywife]

I love co-sleeping with DS...I hate that it makes him nurse more but I love sleeping with him, so does DH. We joke that we would have coslept with DD more (we only did it for like a month) but she was a PITA to co-sleep with. DS is awesome.

I wouldn't worry about her rolling into you.

Edit: The other day I woke up to find DS and DH sleeping back to back, it was so cute!

[circa1978]

Jan 5, 2016 20:56:08 GMT -5 miso said:

We are the worst.

Our kid is still with us.

She'll be two in a few weeks.

I didn't even breastfeed. LOL.

We co-slept until 2+ and he (now 4) still sleeps with us sometimes. I love it.  

And sequins, when he does, he almost always curls and faces toward me. He's been sleeping like that since he was teeny and would chase me across the bed when I tried to scoot away.

[lucky513]

I cosleep with them both, one on each side of me

[vikingfan4]

I also co-sleep with my almost 11 month old. Every now and then I think about sleep training, but DH can't stand to hear her cry alone in her room, so she always ends up with us. I know we've created a monster - a nurse or rock to sleep monster - but there's something about the way she wakes up between us and has big grins and tries to chase the dog out of bed that keeps us coming back for more. Plus, I'm back to work this week so I'm all about the extra cuddles.

[sequins]

Thank you everyone! This thread is so encouraging and positive. I'm more confident about co-sleeping now. I'm not in any rush to move her to pnp but I'll give it a shot to see if she sleeps better. If not, we'll just go back to snuggling. It really is the best!! <3

[underwaterrhymes]

We coslept with K from 5 months until he was probably around 27 months. Some nights he started out in his crib and then wound up in bed with us. But often he was in there the whole night.

He's been in a big boy bed for for around six months now and it's great.

I loved cosleeping way more than I expected (we were anti-cosleeping before we had him) but I doubt we will with N. He has laryngomalacia, which (among other things) means he's a very noisy breather. I wouldn't be able to sleep with him right up next to me. (For the first three months he often slept on top of me, which generally meant very little sleep for me.) Now he's in the bassinet next to our bed, and we plan on transitioning him to the crib in our room around six or seven months.

Also, it's easier for him to breathe and sleep on his tummy. He wears a Snuza for our peace of mind, but it wouldn't be safe for him to sleep on his tummy in our bed.

[creamsiclechica]

Both my kids slept like that also, snuggled face in to either my husband or I, since they were tiny. We co slept with our daughter until just recently and she'll be 4 in March. Our son stil cosleeps with us half the night and he's a little over 2. I think if it works for both of you, you keep on doing it until it doesn't. Sleep is a precious commodity and a healthy, restorative way to be close to your kids. I bet she's a sweet snuggler!

[G22]

We co-sleep. I had no intentions to but Z would only sleep on my chest for the first 5 weeks. I finally got him to sleep in our bed, but he has to be right up next to me. I want to get him transitioned to the bassinet soon, but I forsee it being tough. No advice except to say I sympathize.

[iamgrace]

It's fine. Co sleeping is awesome. Until it's not. Lol. But when they're little? So perfect for breastfeeding, comfort etc.

And I agree with Que?. We put too much pressure on babies (and ourselves)!to get them sleeping alone when most adults don't want to sleep alone. It's nuts.