Co-Sleeping

As a naive pregnant woman I was sure that my baby would not co-sleep. He would be in his cot by 7pm each night and sleeping through by the time he was 6 weeks old. Of course, what you plan for and what actually happens are totally different things. Isaac settles quickly most of the time after a late night feed - no, funnily enough he isn't sleeping through just yet! But there are times that he will seem to settle and then just when I drift off to sleep, I hear that plaintive cry coming from his room. There have been times where this has occurred 3 or 4 times in a row and he comes into the big bed. Once tucked in with mum and dad he drifts off to sleep immediately and sleeps longer between feeds. There is something undeniably wonderful about sleeping with your baby beside you, waking to see his beautiful face in the morning. Just to know that it's your presence, your warmth that is keeping him happy. To be in that sleepy state between dreaming and waking together as you feed. However, there are some dangers with co-sleeping and deaths can occur due to suffocation or strangulation. Here are the guidelines for co-sleeping:

• You shouldn't co-sleep if you are smoker, have had any drugs (including medication and alcohol), or have a sleep disorder. Siblings should not sleep with the baby.
• Always place your baby on his or her back to sleep to reduce the risk of SIDS.
• Always leave your child's head uncovered while sleeping.
• Make sure your bed's headboard and footboard don't have openings or cutouts that could trap your baby's head.
• Make sure your mattress fits snugly in the bed frame so that your baby won't become trapped in between the frame and the mattress.
• Don't place a baby to sleep in an adult bed alone.
• Don't use pillows, comforters, quilts, and other soft or plush items on the bed.
• Don't drink alcohol or use medications or drugs that may keep you from waking and may cause you to roll over onto, and therefore suffocate, your baby.
• Don't place your bed near draperies or blinds where your child could be strangled by cords.

I think it's worth remembering that 9o% of the world's population would co-sleep with their infants. It's a very "Western" and even unnatural thing to do - to separate our babies into their own beds. If you look at it in that light it suddenly seems cruel to have a newborn sleeping away from it's mother. But our lifestyles are very different and a lot of very content babies sleep in their own beds. It is also hard to sleep with a snuffling little bub beside you while you are cautious not to roll on them. Like most things with babies - it's horses for courses and you and your baby have to choose your own path. For Isaac and I, there will be the occasional co-sleep but we hope to cease that prior to 6 months. After 6 months it can be difficult to get the wee ones out of the big bed until they are much older.