My 16 months still loves to listen to my heartbeat and breathing when falling asleep. I thought he would have outgrown it at this age, so cherishing these little moments while he still willing to cuddle 🥹
I’ve never coslept, partly because when I’m breastfeeding side lying I have no idea what to do with my arms. Okay Bottom arm can go under the pillow, although that’s still quite uncomfortable. But what does top arm do? Baby is where top arm normally is! I usually drape it over her as I’m awake but if I fell asleep like that, it would rest on her and maybe squish her?? I don’t get it!
After 17 days in the hospital with our 6 month old… I have a newfound gratitude and tenderness towards cosleeping and breastfeeding.
Nursing several times at night used to be a little frustrating for me. Cosleeping felt uncomfortable on my body. I used to count how little sleep I was getting and wake feeling exhausted.
Now I am just insanely grateful!!! (Mind you, there is still a sprinkle of frustration here and there. haha)
I’m grateful I didn’t loose my milk supply while exclusively pumping for 2+ weeks in the hospital.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to sleep next to my baby and my husband instead of sleeping alone on the hospital couch.
I’m grateful our little guy was able to be discharged without his feeding tube. How wonderful that we are still able to breastfeed at all!
Sure, things are still hard and it’s overwhelming at times. BUT in the midst of that struggle I have this sense of gratitude for the gift of time.
Just for fun… I doodled our current cosleeping set up.
Now, to find a good trauma therapist. 😂
(Note: this isn’t meant to shame parents who are frustrated or exhausted. This parenting thing is HARD! Just sharing how my perspective has shifted after the trauma of almost loosing my son.)
Anyone else finding the C-curl hard to maintain?? My body is rejecting it more and more, I’m getting cramps and elbow pains 😭 my LO is about 6 wks, and sometimes she ends up being a little spoon with me because she loves side sleeping but otherwise we use the C-curl. It’s just been hard to maintain physically. Any advice on making it easier??
My toddler starts out in his own crib but always ends up in our bed at 5am ish. We coslept from 5 months to 17 months and then when I became pregnant again I just couldn’t keep doing it all night. He likes to dig his little toes into me and he tosses and turns. I do miss him when he’s in own his bed though. My husband barely gets any room on the bed and our cat refuses to come to bed with my toddler in it.😅 she makes her displeasure well known..
Does this look safe enough? Baby (almost 7ms) just started rolling a couple weeks ago. Considering a mesh bed rail (?) or possibly attaching bedside crib. but he doesn’t stray from my side and stays latched all night. I wake up with him glued to me lol 😂 also a veryyy light sleeper. i pretty much always wake before he even cries or tries rooting to relatch. I would consider a floor bed but we have a very expensive mattress that was gifted to us and our room is fairly small.
Bed a Cali king or king xl and is about 12 inches from the floor and very firm. We sleep with a cotton sheet under us. He also has his owlet sock (which I know is a false sense of security, but it still provides me some sense!)
Since he is about to reach crawling age would you recommend a twin/full sized roll up floor mattress that me and baby use and then roll up and store under our big bed during the day? Or a side bed crib? Or a mesh bed rail?
In case my finger writing is impossible to read:
Partner on the left, repurposed pregnancy pillow as a barrier between us, baby and me on the right with a mesh bed rail. Partner and I use different blankets, I wedge a body pillow against the bed rail a) so I don’t roll and b) because baby and I switch sides to nurse to sleep pretty often (3-4x a night) and I don’t want her to roll into the gap!! She also has her owlet sock every night, light bamboo or cotton jammies and the blankie over her legs only.
Baby usually prefers to nurse to sleep while side lying up against me so once she hits deep sleep I can scoot her over to the side so she doesn’t press her face into me, we get some REALLY good stretches this way! She usually gets around 10.5 hours every night, the bulk of it between 10:30pm-5am. Baby is about to be 4mo and is already rolling so I had to blockade our side of the bed 😅
We switched to a California king bed specifically because of cosleeping and it has helped us tremendously. Little guy sleeps in between us with lots of space free of blankets and pillows. The bed is pushed up against the wall so he cannot crawl off. I’m a super light sleeper so I spend a lot of time reading at night.
My setup starting 8 months (she's almost 3 now)
Firmest custom mattress we could find. No blanket or pillow for me. Hair braided tightly. Baby high up at my head so I can't physically roll over. No cats. Husband in next room. Baby in sleep sack. I understand it's a bit of an overkill but someone just asked if anyone follows any safe sleep guidelines.
Everyone has a right to come here and express how they are cosleeping but many new people are coming here to learn and it worries me that they will see encouragement and approval in the comments of unsafe practices and not understand the risks or be able to make informed decisions. I think the baby wearing sub is a good example there is an automatic comment with safety information and best practices, and then if people choose not to follow themselves they have all the information atleast. Maybe it can provide some book references and info on SS7, etc.
I’m hoping this can all get us back on the same page while allowing room for lifestyle differences and levels of comfort and continuing to encourage as much safety as possible. We should be able to say these are the best practices but of course do what works for you without it being perceived as judgement. This is the cosleeping sub after all where else should we be helping people to safely cosleep if not here. This is not about judgement but rather information and also leading by example.
I feel like we’ve gone alittle off the rails abandoning all of the safety I came here learning 7 months ago and I’m just alittle surprised these last few days between the posts and then the comments on the posts.
Cosleeping already has so much misinformation and misunderstanding around it and is viewed as very unsafe by many (because it can be when done without caution) still let’s not start proving those people right.
I’m going through my insta settings and filtering some things out I’m seeing too much of (in this case it’s a few celebrities) and I saw that there is a space to fine-tune your algorithm. I thought “perfect! I’ll add some things I do want to see and remove stuff I really don’t” and I added a few topics about babies and parenting, stuff about my city and neighborhood, and a music artist I really like. Then I tried to add “cosleeping” and a pop-up said “This topic is not supported”
WHAT? Am I just overreacting or is that not absurd. Can someone in another country test this out?????
Edit: Other obscure topics work fine. Typing in “Safe Sleep 7” triggers a safety check in pop-up.
Do dads cosleep? What’s the feel on that? I know one of the safe sleep seven is that you must be breastfeeding to cosleep. As a mom, I cosleep with my baby but I’m not breastfeeding (I don’t need the judgement). I only started cosleeping when baby was 4 months old. Also, when does cosleeping stop being a thing and just turns into napping with your baby/toddler? I feel the word “cosleep” implies all the recommended safety practices. Whereas when they get older you’re really just sleeping together and them kicking you out the way if you’re too close is the safety practice lol.
I ask because sometimes my husband will cosleep. And I know I’m a walking contradiction for feeling this way, but idk how I feel about him cosleeping. Somehow my brain is wired to believe cosleeping is for moms and then when they’re older dads can start napping with them. But I cosleep and don’t breastfeed so how is that any different than dad cosleeping? PLEASE DONT HATE ON ME 😭😭 I know I’m wrong to think that, I’m literally here to unlearn that through everyone else’s voice. I’m wondering if there’s additional maternal instinct or something. Also, I don’t think it has anything to do with my husband specifically. It’s not like he’s a deep sleeper and I’m afraid he won’t wake up.
I do love looking at all your drawings, but why do I have yet to see one actually following safe cosleeping practices?! Pets in the bed, blankets by baby, pillows behind infant. Freaks me out!
How are you dressing your infants for cosleeping/bedsharing? I’m laying here about to go to sleep with my 4 month old and, for a few messy reasons, all of his sleep sacks are dirty. He’s in a romper and his skin temp feels great right now. We’re in a heat wave, it’s been about 74-75F in our bedroom every night and we use a fan to circulate air. All that to say…I feel like a romper/onesie is fine if it’s this warm PLUS he’s in a cuddle curl with my body heat.
Does anyone know of any resources for how to dress a baby for bedsharing? All the resources assume the baby is by themself.
Do you think it’s probably fine to sleep with him just in a romper? Better or worse than letting him wear a sleep sack with dried pee?
Hello!
After the first few weeks of parenting with apps I switched to cues/vibes because the apps were driving me insane.
I am struggling with his evening sleeps though. We are pretty busy during the day since it's summer here so he has gotten used to napping on the go. He will only contact nap in the day so it's not much different if I do it home or at the park or walking around. But by the time we get home it seems like he just wants to go to sleep for the night around 530.
I try to keep him up until 730, then do his bedtime routine and contact nap for an hour, then transfer to his bassinet (this is the only way he will go in there and it will only happen once a day for his night sleep). From then on he sleeps until between 8 until anywhere between 2:30-5am. After that we Safe Sleep 7 till 8am.
I'm afraid if I let him go to sleep at 530, then he will wake up around 11:30pm and not go back in his bassinet. Then I will be cosleeping for a much longer time, which I try to avoid due to anxiety, though I do long cosleeping with him and am actively trying to find a comfortable safe setup, the current one has my hips hurting pretty quickly. My body is not made for a firm mattress 😅.
I feel bad not letting him sleep. And there's no short nap at that point in the day, if I try to get him up at 6pm after a 30 minute nap or so, he is sooooo mad and just wants to sleep. But 530 seems really early.
Does anyone have any advice on what they do for evenings?
Hi all! I just have a quick question!
As much as I would love to bed-share, we have a queen size bed and my husband is a giant (6’7). So I thought the ikea sidecar hack would be the best next option (and give us the biggest bang for our buck).
But just to confirm, I should NOT swaddle baby and do not NEED to but baby in a sleep sack, is that correct?
Thanks!
pillow above baby’s head stays! it gets shoved between the mattress and headboard bc the gap scares me 😓
any comments? advice?
We try to keep blanket down to my waist and 13mo is between us. Safe???
Currently pregnant and looking for apartments with enough space for an extra large bed. My partner and I want to co-sleep to maximize cuddles with the babies.
From how many weeks is this safe to do and do multiples increase risks?