Calling all sleepless co-sleepers......

[chicca]

DS (Now 7.5 months) has been in bed with us since he was born with the odd couple of hours here and there in moses basket and then cot. He clearly loves being in bed with us and although he wakes all through the night (every 2 hours at least) a quick bf will get him back off again ( I know it's mostly for comfort).
I am really knackered but still able to function (not sure how).
Is anyone else co-sleeping and happy about it?
Most people are looking for ways to get baby OUT of the bed but is anyone still doing it and happy with the situation?
I'm sure at some point (when cot is actually put up!) we will have to go through CC or whatever. But despite tiredness, bad backs, dodgy hips etc.DH and I are ok with the status quo.

[NotQuiteCockney]

Oh, I'm starting to think about kicking DS2 (5 months) out. I'm reasonably happy, but would like to have my evenings back. As things are now, he only sleeps in the pram, or if I nurse him to sleep in our bed. I can sneak off, though.

At some point, I will go all CC, and will schedule his sleeping too, I just don't know when. (We did CC for DS1 at 3 months, but he was harder to share a bed, with - he'd wake up if I rolled over!)

[MARRA]

our dd 5 months will go to sleep lovely in her cot untill about 3/4 am then she will atart to wake up...not cry though.
i could leave her to nod of if i wanted but i always put her in with us, i like it and dont intend to stop yet.
i am making a rod for my own back but i will deal with that at the time.

[HappyMumof2]

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[Clayhead]

We co-sleep.

dd is now 3, co-slept until 18 months, then started to put her in her own bed in the evening. We did the thing where you gradually withdraw, start by cuddling to sleep, then sitting on the bed, then standing etc. Now we just have stories, cuddles and leave the room. Sometimes she still comes in with us during the night.

ds is 18 months. He goes to sleep in the evening on a matress on the floor, then we lift him when we go to bed and he sleeps with us for the rest of the night. I fed him during the night until he was about 1 (I too thought it was just a comfort thing) then he just stopped.

We all get a good night's sleep but we did buy a 6ft bed which has helped loads.

You don't have to do cc! It's a choice. We knew we didn't want to so didn't.

I don't tell people in RL that I co-sleep anymore as I have had so many negative reactions but there are a few co-sleepers on here. I always remember hercules as one.

[Clayhead]

PS we never used a cot, just went straight to bed/matress

[MunchedTooManyMarsLady]

If it ain't broke don't fix it. You sound like you have it all sorted. Wouldn't worry about it We co sleep with DTs

[rickman]

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[hercules]

Dont worry about rod for your own back and cosleepers struggle later. We coslep with ds until he was 4 or 5 and he went into his ow bed with no problems. He's now 9 and has never had sleep problems.
We dont even have a cot anymore for dd and we've always coslep with her. No intention of changing for a good while yet. She sleeps fine on her own as well.

Never done cc with either.

People are generally negative about cosleepng but that doesnt bother me. I only tell likre minded people.

If you're happy then enjoy it. They are only little for a short time.

[maisystar]

i co sleep with ds. he's 4 1/2yrs. he goes to sleep on his own in my bed and then i go to bed later. over the summer(before he goes to 'big school') i will start putting him to bed in his own bed but if he wakes in the night he can still come in with me. personally i think co sleeping is lovely and i haven't felt sleep deprived at all since ds was born(except the first few weeks)

agree with munchedtoomanymarslady(phew long name!) if it aint broke.......

[chicca]

Thanks everyone - I feel much better!
Sadly I seem to be in the minority in actually suffering sleep-wise from co-sleeping but looking at his little face in the morning makes it all worth it. He seems so excited that we are all bunked together!
And yes, Hercules, you're right - it ain't worth telling people until you have sussed their likely reaction.
Definitely need a bigger bed though - even our king size means I sleep in the space of a postage stamp.........

[hercules]

we have a superkingsize!

[Fran1]

If you think you can co-sleep as long as your ds wants, then great and go for it. But if you are thinking in a few months you may start trying to get him to sleep in a cot, i would start now. I am sure the younger the easier.
My dd wasn't a very good sleeper esp in her cot, so we did pretty much the same as clayhead, onto a matress at 15mths and gently withdrawing the amount of comforting she was getting from us. She is just two and has just become able to go to sleep on her own, still getting into bed with us at some point in the early hours.
Maybe the fact that we don't even have a double bed, its a bed in between single and double, is what made me encourage dd to sleep in her own bed!! Me, dp and dd found it a bit of a squash, and more often or not it was dp who ended up on the bedside table most nights .

[Jimjams]

I like co-sleeping providing dh isn't in the bed (too small- the bed that is) and have done it off and on with all my 3. Ds2 co-slept a lot, although now (age 3) he loves his own bed. DS3 was co-sleeping but I've popped him in an amby baby hammock next to my bed and he seems to like that. If I fall asleep feeding him then he stays, if I stay awake I pop him back afer his feeds.

[Cristina7]

Our DS is 5 and still falls asleep in our bed, then we take him in his and he wanders back into ours sometimes between 3-5 am. As long as he doesn't pee on my side of the bed it doesn't bother me. (He still has the odd nightime "accident".) We're having another baby very soon and I know we'll have to change something but haven't worked out yet what to do.

[beansontoast]

my son was about seven months when we thought that maybe just maybe there could be another way that didnt leave me so tired.i felt that we all disturbed each other and only ds got a really good deal..lots of booby!

after about three weeks of considering cc and lots of 'putting it off' we did controlled crying!

would never try to convince you if its not your bag,but for us it worked a treat.2-3 days.
[if you want details..just ask]

it felt a bit weird at first and then felt perfectly wonderful,when i weighed it all up.

good luck,hope this helps x

[chicca]

bump

[Beansmum]

ds is 9 months and slept in his cot from 8pm-7am until about a month ago. now he sleeps in my bed and wakes up twice in the night, sometimes he wants a feed, sometimes if I just cuddle him up to me he goes back to sleep. I have noticed that I am tired again, I was so used to getting a full nights sleep, but I love having him there and would hate to have to try and get him to sleep in his cot again, I can just imagine the tears! I think since I am happy and ds is happy I will wait until he is big enough for a bed before I kick him out.

[Jacksmummie]

Hi Chicca
This is nearly the same as us, DS goes off in cot at 8pm, then wakes at approx 4.30am, and will not go back to sleep in cot and ends up sleeping with dh and i. Do you ever get the felling you are being used as a human dummy?

[skerriesmum]

Yes, that's exactly how I feel.

[chicca]

Same here - and the arrival of teeth doesn't exactly make it more fun...

[Clayhead]

...but it does end (yes, I know, it makes you want to whack me but I have been in the same place twice over and even though ds is only 18 months, the human dummy phase seems like forever ago now...)

[skerriesmum]

When, WHEN will it end?!

[Toothache]

I coslept with ds from birth. He woke every 2 hrs also for feeds. He still needs to come into bed with us every night. He starts off in his own bed but always wakes about 12-1am. He's 4 in June!!!

Dd is 7mths, she sleeps in her cot until 5am.... then just to grab an extra hour I take her in bed with me.

DH and I sleep in seperate rooms and take turns to get up with the kids!!

I'm knackered.

[skerriesmum]

OMG I can't take two more years of this. We're doing the same, alternating sleeping in the guest room with/without ds! Knackered at work today.

[Clayhead]

Human dummy bit ended for me when ds was 1, that coincided with him getting his first 4 molars and he became much more settled once they were through.

At the time, I never thought it would end either.