Where is the best place for a newborn to sleep? In a bassinet? In a crib? In your bed? On your chest?
I find it so interesting to hear about where parents of new babies prefer them to sleep. With our first, I assumed she would sleep in a cute little cradle next to my side of the bed for the first few months, then we’d move her to a crib. No such luck. For some reason, she never settled into a very deep sleep while in the bassinet and so we put her in her crib when she was just over a week old. The thing we did a little differently was that I hauled a mattress onto the floor of the nursery and camped out with the baby for the first month or so. It just worked for us. My husband is the kind of guy who self-destructs if sleep-deprived (I think I am too, but, ha ha, seem to have no choice in the matter) and we figured there was no point in us both being zombies. I found it easy to sleep with the baby since I had everything I needed for nighttime feedings, diaper changes, and barf-tastic blowouts. It also felt reassuring to know I was right there with my girl through the night and not sleeping with one eye open in the room down the hall, hoping she’d keep breathing. So, this is what we plan to do for Baby #3.
It’s funny, because while I have never really planned to be a co-sleeper with any of our kids, with our second child it kind of happened on its own for a while. See, I had my nice, classy mattress on the floor of Karenna’s nursery and since I was so exhausted I would lay down and feed her on it with me. It was cozy, and dozy. If I tried to transfer her back to her crib, she would rouse and squawk so I got into the habit of letting her sleep on the mattress, all by herself, even after I had moved back into my master bedroom. I would lay down with her to feed her before bed, wait till she was asleep, then gently creep off the bed and leave her be for the night. It looked so funny, seeing this little swaddled baby asleep on a ghetto mattress on the middle of the floor, but it was what she wanted so we made it work. (For the record, she was swaddled tight as a mummy for the first six months of her life and there’s no way she could have rolled off the mattress, of even moved an inch to the right or left.)
I think that’s the moral of any parenting story: your original plans will get pooped on (literally) and you just have to go with the flow.
Where did you have your newborn sleep? Did you end up changing your original plan or sticking with it? Anyone else let their baby sleep on a hobo mattress all by her lonesome? No? OK, then.
There are so many approaches to this and each baby can be so different. I had no plans to co-sleep with our son but it naturally happened. It was easy with breastfeeding and soothed our fussy babe too.
In all honesty, my husband did not love sleeping with all of us in one space and often hit the sofa bed. I think it is a proven fact that women cope better with sleep deprivation, men tend to wimp out on this one.
Yeah, if everyone is sleeping well and you are doing it safely … then whatever it is your are doing works.
I co-slept with both my girls for the first few months. Then again around 18 months with Josie for a few months when she became so clingly. Why? Because it worked. We slept. So we did it.
I’m with Jen. If everyone sleeps and is safe…then you’re right.
We tried keeping our first born in the bassinet but he sounded like a baa-ing sheep and so by the second night my husband snuck him in his room in his crib. I woke up thinking someone stole our baby.
With the twin girls, we put them in their own room, both in the same crib since day one. They are now 3 months and still sleeping like, well, babies. We will eventually get them their own cribs.
Co-sleeping? Totally not for me. Too hot, too squishy, too co-dependent and too noisy. However, I’m happy that others enjoy that arrangement.
My older 3 all slept with Jon and I in our bed. We found it worked great for us. I very much need my sleep, and was able to sleep great with them right beside me. They slept with us until they started sleeping through the night which was 4 weeks for Brielle, and around 4 months for Micah and Isaiah. I’d put them to bed in their own bed, but when they woke up for their first night time feeding I’d just bring them into bed with me and we’d both fall right back to sleep. This wasn’t really possible with the twins. For one thing, I wasn’t able to sleep anywhere but on our reclining couch for two weeks (because of the C-Section) and also, our bed just isn’t big enough for 4 people. 🙂 They actually slept on the livingroom floor (on a makeshift bed of blankets) for probably 3 months! Terrible, I know! Then they moved to a crib in our room, but now that the basement reno’s are done and all the older kids got moved to rooms downstairs, the twins have their own room. They sleep in the same crib though.
With Kaylie, her in a crib in my room (in my parents’ basement, FTW!) and then she got her own room at 3 or so months, but in there I occasionally co-slept, when I was lazy. With Liliana, she was in a bassinet in our room for a month or so and then went in her own room in a crib. Only co-slept once and woke up to the pillow on top of her. Freaked me out and I never did that again.
In my opinion? If it gives everyone SLEEP? THEN IT’S THE RIGHT DECISION.