"Co-sleeping"

[raynjen]

My husband and I are debating the various options for having our baby "room-in" with us. At first I was sold on the co-sleeper that fits up next to the bed, but heard a lot of complaints about the ability to actually collapse and move it. As we have a large rambunctious dog, I didn't think a bassinet would be the most secure (I think Alan and Denise mentioned that dogs can tip bassinets in their book). We considered a pack-n-play with bassinet as well and we have thought about putting the crib next to the bed with the side lowered, but wanted to hear other parent's opinions. Any help, ideas, or solutions would be appreciated.

Thanks, Jen

[joodyjr]

LAST EDITED ON Feb-09-01 AT 06:23PM (Mountain)[p]my husband installed a screen door on the baby's room as we have 3 cats. Therefore this did not allow us to put the bassinet anywhere else (we didn't want screen door on our room because cats slept there) We kept the twin bed in the baby's room and when he woke during the night I just slipped out of our bed into the twin bed w/baby to nurse. I didn't miss much sleep as I was able to nap while nursing and my husband wasn't disturbed at all (he worked, I didn't)
I figured this out after sleeping in the same room w/baby a couple of nights and didn't get one wink of sleep because I kept waking up to every sound he made. Once I went to my own bed, I finally got some sleep.
Fortunately baby began sleeping through the night before I went back to work.
I would like to add one thing about the bassinet... I personally will not use one again as I find the crib to be the best place to sleep for baby. The flimsy padding in the bassinet and the sticky hot vinyl didn't seem to be a comfortable sleeping place. But that is just my opinion. Lots of people use bassinets and have no qualms.
There have been lots of opinions about co-sleeping.. mine is that you should let baby have his room and you have yours. You'll all sleep a little more.

[jakekeeler]

Our daughter has been co-sleeping with us for a year now and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I adore watching her little self in sleep-- it's the cutest thing in the world! The thought of putting her off in another room by herself seems pretty scary to me.

We initially used the Armsreach co-sleeper, but she wasn't comfortable in it as it was so huge at first for such a tiny baby. We initially ended up using it as a bedside table for necessary items as diapers, wipes what have you. Our first month was very difficult and we got little sleep. My husband would spend hours holding her in his arms while Bob Marley and the Wailers sang in the background. I would highly recommend reggae music for infants, everyone I've talked to says it works, I don't know if it is the beats or what, but newborns love it.

Then one weekend, my aunt and uncle and cousins showed up. My cousins wanted to go out and eat and my aunt and uncle wanted to babysit, so we got to go out. When we returned we found our daughter peacefully sleeping in the cradleboard another uncle had made for her. I should explain that a "cradleboard" as it is called in English, is a traditional Native American board that a baby is strapped to in the first year of life. We hadn't used it before because, well we were to exhausted too read the diagrams and instructions my uncle (an engineer) had included with it. It worked like a charm for the first 6 months of her life. Every night we would just bundle her up in the cradleboard and she'd automatically just drift off to sleep. I would prop it up at a 30 degree angle in the Armsreach Co-sleeper (probably the oddest use of it ever!) and she'd sleep all night until I'd untie her in the morning.

At seven months we stopped using the cradleboard as she got too big for it and just put her between us (the river as they call it in Japan). I recently visited my grandmother on the Yankton Sioux reservation and she told me that she did the same thing with all seven of her children! Never used a crib! It's funny I have more in common with my grandparents (cradleboard, nursing, co-sleeping) than with my parents. I guess the way I was raised (crib and formula) was just a one-time generational blip on the radar screen of my family tree.

Hechetu ye-- that's all as we say.

[Gary]

hi - i was strongly pressuring my wife (well, as much as you can pressure a pregnant woman without getting your head chopped off) into using the graco 5 in 1 - it has a large bassinet which i thought would be perfect - the idea being a crib would have to be disassembled to keep in the bedroom, then reassembled for the babie's room - too much of a hassle. in a nutshell, we've decided to go with a portable crib - cosco makes one for about $80 at babies r us - it seems like it is much sturdier than the playyard, and it is portable, though not conveniently so. i still plan on the playyard - perhaps for travelling, etc. - my smother in law :) refuses to use the graco playyard as a bassinet - as she feels when the baby outgrows the bassinet part, the baby will sleep too close to the floor - go figya! hope this helped!