# The Joys of Co-Sleeping



## smallmama (Dec 6, 2006)

I know co-sleeping isn't always totally comfortable or relaxing for us but let's focus on the positive and do a feel-good post! What (specifically) do _you_ love about co-sleeping?

I love seeing DS sit stark upright in his sleep, eyes still closed with a little smile on his face, then flop back down in the opposite direction. OMG, it's so cute. I could just smother him with kisses (if I weren't afraid it would wake him up!).


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## Arwyn (Sep 9, 2004)

Watching DP and Naked Baby snuggling up together.

Getting to watch and hear and feel and smell my baby anytime I wake up.

The complete _rightness_ of it.


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## MrsRitchie (Jan 15, 2007)

Waking up to his kisses!
Even though we are a very busy family and don't get to see each other enough some days, we still get that bonding time at night, when the three of us are off in dreamland together. THAT alone is why we are in no rush to get him out of our bed.


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## Shazer (Oct 6, 2006)

No matter what position I put DD in, she will always move and snuggle up next to me. Sometimes she snuggles so much, she nearly pushes me out of bed.

I love how I don't have to groggily get up to comfort DD because I'm always there for her. And I can just pull out a boob when she's hungry.

I love how sometimes she will flop toward her dad and stretch an arm out or put her hand in his. It is so darn cute.

I love how connected I am with DD's sleep habits. Granted, most days I would be overjoyed to have her nap more (or at all!), but I know she sleeps so much better when I am in bed with her.


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## D_McG (Jun 12, 2006)

Lately DS (14 mos) has been waking me up with a question. I don't know what it is but he just says "Ish? Ish?" in an inquisitive voice. It's so cute I just love that whatever burning issue that's on his mind can be immediately addressed! (now if only I knew what it meant...







)


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## Irish (Jun 3, 2007)

I LOVE to watch DD find me in the night with her eyes closed and curl up into me - even though DH and I regularly switch sides of the bed.

I LOVE waking up with her using my breast as a pillow.

I LOVE spending the first half hour in the morning listening to her coo and playing with her before getting up and getting ready for the day.

DD lying between DH and I during those moments before we go to sleep, staring at her and at each other is a beautiful reminder to stay connected and intimate...Seeing him as a dad to a babe is new and has made me fall in love with him all over again.


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## elsa_elsa (Nov 2, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Irish* 
I LOVE waking up with her using my breast as a pillow.

I love this about my DS as well! so cute.

I love how he cuddles up next to me.

I love how we move in similar ways during sleep (or so my DH says).

I love not having to get out of bed when he wakes up.

I love being right there for him all night!


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## luminesce (Aug 6, 2006)

I love how DS is just like the Cheshire cat. He keeps magically appearing next to me no matter where he was not before. He's like a heat seeking missile!

I love how he makes these cute little sounds when he is not quite awake but wants to wake up and nurse.

I love feeling his toes wiggle against my legs curled around his feet. It reminds me of how he moved in my belly.

I love being there for him when he wakes up and needs me.

I love if he wakes up and instinctively starts to cry that I can say something soft and he will immediately realize 'Aww-right! Mama is right here beside me!' and not cry.

I love feeling like this is what mamas and babies are meant to do.


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## *LoveBugMama* (Aug 2, 2003)

Let`s hope this thread gets really, really long!









I love

*to lie down with him in the evening, and feel his arms around me when we chat about our day before he falls asleep.
*to feel his body become heavy, and see his eyes close as he falls asleep.
*to go to bed at night, and have a warm Noah to curl up to.








*how cosleeping heals us. If our day has been rough, sleeping together is heaven. It makes everything right again.

Cosleeping is the glue that keeps my family together.


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## Juvysen (Apr 25, 2007)

I've actually been thinking about this a lot lately because we're considering starting to transition my DD (at 18 months). I'm starting to think *I'm* just not ready for that. I'd miss cuddling with my little girl! And waking up with her sweet little random words in a quiet sleepy voice "Elmo? Kitty?". I don't know if I'm ready to let that go yet. Plus, I love that when I wake up early in the morning I can watch her sleep while I'm falling back asleep.


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## kewpie-o (Jun 1, 2006)

I love how tiny our 3.5 month old DD looks in the middle of our king size mattress when she's taking a nap. I don't know why, but for some reason it's so cute!









I love waking up to her gigantic smile. Every morning, it just seems like she's so happy to be alive!









I love how our bed is a relaxing safe-haven for her. If she is cranky or upset, laying down with her in our cool dark room is like a reset button - suddenly, all is right with the world.

I love it when DH leaves for work in the morning, he kisses both of us goodbye...and I can tell that he loves the sight of his wife and daughter curled up peacefully together as he leaves.


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## sofiabugmom (Sep 23, 2003)

I love this thread ... thanks to the OP for starting it!

DD is 5yo, and we're still cosleeping at least half-time. I really love the fact that she wants to be close to both DH and me at night, hearing her say, "We'll cuddle all together" in her sleepy voice.

I also love that DH can cuddle with his little girl; even though he works such long and crazy hours, he can have that closeness with her every night.

And I love it when I can watch her wake up with a smile on her face and say, "I had a good sleep last night!"

She just started, on her own, occasionally sleeping on two pillows on the floor near our bed, with two very specific blankets (no substitutions allowed) and calling it her "new bed". Of course, if she ever needs cuddling and comfort in the middle of the night, she's still welcome to come in bed with us. DH's heart is breaking from it, but I told her that this is her way of transitioning out, and it means we're doing our job.


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## jcregan (Jul 20, 2007)

I love not having to fully wake-up to nurse her or comfort her back to sleep.

I just love having her near me, not having to worry if she is ok, or wonder what she is doing, or whatever... she is right there - I just look and see!

I love the morning cuddle time when she nurses a bunch and we kind of drift in/out of sleep.

I love when she wakes up in a good mood and starts off the day with some "ticka ticka" (tickle) as she tickles my breast...

I love when she rolls over to give me hugs and kisses in the morning







:


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## alysonb (Mar 15, 2006)

I love when DS wakes up in the middle of the night and calls out Mama? Mama? and then I snuggle next to him and looks at me and says, kind of with a comforted sigh, Mama.


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## MilkTrance (Jul 21, 2007)

omg Alyson, your post made me teary-eyed. sigh.

I love it when DS (9 weeks old) kind of "rustles awake" out of baby-sleep and starts making little baby-squeaks... and how his eyes are still closed when he starts nursing... and his face is always turned towards mine or DH's


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## ryansma (Sep 6, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *CrunchyTamara* 
*how cosleeping heals us. If our day has been rough, sleeping together is heaven. It makes everything right again.

Esp on hard days - I look forward to cosleeping even more.
I love that I hear every little sleep laugh and I am right there if he has a bad dream.
I love hearing him take deep breaths as he sleeps.
I love that often times when he shuffles around in his sleep he toots - it makes me laugh.
I love that his first words in the morning are (a happy) Mama and Dadddooo.
I love how right it feels and how well it works.
I love co-sleeping because my baby thrives with it and anytime he is doing well - I am a happy mama.


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## AileenM (Dec 16, 2006)

I love her homing device...she always ends up right there with me.
I love the fact that I can wake up in the morning having moved her in my sleep...and sleeping right through it. I love that my instincts work like that!
I love love love waking up to two big, blue eyes staring up at me and a HUGE smile on her face...as if to say "Hi! I love you!"


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## AnnesMoM (Jun 19, 2005)

Having my side already warmed up for me








Waking up to a happy, giggling, little boy every morning.
Not having to get out of bed to feed ds twice a night.
Him sleeping in the crook of my arm and cuddling all night.
I don't feel as bad if I have an extremely busy day and can't give him my undivided attention as much as I would like since I know he'll be with me all night. (not using that as an excuse







)


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## earthgirl (Feb 6, 2006)

I love that little wide-open mouth rooting around, while her eyes are still closed. I love when she's nursing, starts to fall asleep, rolls away and then quickly rolls back to latch back on. It's like she's thinking, "Aw, that's good. Just a little bit more..." I love when she wakes up, rolls onto her tummy and lifts her head up, then suddenly drops it b/c she's so tired, but she's smiling the whole time. But my favorite co-sleeping memory of all time was when she was about 3 months old. She woke up around 3:30. At the time I still hadn't mastered nursing in the dark so I turned on our bedside lamp. She caught a glimpse of DH and you could tell she was finally cluing in to the fact that he slept in our bed, too. It was so cute how excited she was. She kept pulling off of my breast to turn and give him a big smile.


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## timneh_mom (Jun 13, 2005)

Since I am inherently lazy, I love how I don't have to get up and go to another room to nurse at night. Although, because I had such awful problems with oversupply and overactive let down, this wasn't always the case... I couldn't nurse in bed at first because my milk would come out so fast, she would get too full and cry and puke and we'd all be wide awake then.

But thankfully my flow has gotten easier and she's bigger now, and it's so nice to just reach over to comfort her without getting up.


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## turnipmama (Oct 29, 2006)

what a great thread!

I love waking up to her lips smacking and her scooting towards me to nurse.
I love how peaceful she looks sleeping next to us.
I love waking up to her curled around my boob








I love watching her stretch and grunt before she's really awake in the morning.
I love how DH will just roll over and give her a smooch in the middle of the night for no reason.
I even love the occasional farts!








I love how natural and right it feels.


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## smallmama (Dec 6, 2006)

I'm glad you all like this thread!! I've got another one.

I love when DS tosses and turns in his sleep and ends up laying spread eagle on his back - one arm thrown across my neck, one foot propped up on DH's hip - taking up the whole bed. It's _his_ bed and he knows it!


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## newmoon2000 (Jul 19, 2007)

My twins were born 3 months premature (both at only two pounds) and spent the first 3 months of their lives in the NICU. They have slept in our bed since the day they were released from the hospital. It has been challenging at times, but we honestly can't imagine having it any other way. In addition to all the wonderful things everybody else has said, the thing I like most about co-sleeping is knowing WHERE my babies are at night and that they are healthy and SAFE! (They are now 13 months and, thankfully, doing just fine!)


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## prettypixels (Apr 13, 2006)

Yes, yes, yes, to everything EVERYONE said!

I can't imagine being able to *stare* at my baby sleeping, in a crib it would not be the same. There would be a distance between us. I love lying next to her and staring at her while she sleeps, the gorgeous chubby curve of her cheeks, her silky eyelashes resting on creamy skin... and I'm there just inches away from her. I love not having to worry about her, I'm right there! I love when she rolls over and puts her head on me. I love how if I move, she moves too, and I wind up way on the edge of the bed!







I love those sleepy farts too!







I love that I get more sleep than I would if she were in a crib! I love that time in the morning when she wakes up, lifts her head, and looks at me with a GIANT smile like "Hello mama! Good morning!" (Not so much when she does that at 3 am... and 4am... and... LOL!)


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## Eaglevoice (Nov 30, 2004)

I love the warmth of her body pressed against mine all night long. I love the sound of her sweet breathing. I love that I can kiss the top of her head with out hardly moving a muscle anytime I want. And I love how my older dd throws her arms around me and curls up around my back in the middle of the night.


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## BensMamacita (Mar 13, 2007)

I love laying down with my ds after a long day of working (outside the home), and cuddling, laughing, kissing and nursing. I love to watch his falling-asleep routine, the tosses and turns and finally settling in. I love that when he wakes up at night, I'm right there next to him. I love sleeping in between my dh and ds, with my kittens at my feet - it's pure heaven!
I love watching ds try to wake up - sitting up all bleary-eyed and flopping back onto the pillow a few times.
I love the little interactions that I wouldn't see otherwise. For example, the other night, ds woke up crying and one of the kittens came up to see what was going on. He sat up and said her name and then she let him pet her (which is rare), and gave him a little kiss. Then ds layed back down and fell right to sleep.
I love the morning when the three of us lay in bed and laugh and talk and cuddle before we get up for the day.
I love it when I say "do you want to get up?" and ds says "no," so I say "do you want to get down?" and he shouts "YEAH!" (He doesn't understand the idea of "getting up" since he "gets down" off the bed)
What will I do when he wants to sleep in his own bed!?!?!


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## VeganMamaRed (Jun 7, 2007)

My absolute favorite thing is watching DS do his heat seeking routine. He will (with eyes still shut) start inchworming his way towards me, looking for me, usually with his mouth wide open and rooting. When he finds me, he will latch on and get a big handful of my hair to twirl and then do this incredible sigh of satisfaction.

I also love waking up to his sweet little face every morning. And feeling him cuddled against me all night. Come think of it, there isn't too much I don't like about co-sleeping.


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## lemurmommies (Jan 15, 2007)

I love not having to be that crazy mom who gets up 10 times a night to make sure DS is still breathing; I can just look over and assure myself that he's still there and doing fine.

I love that now that he can roll over in both directions, sometimes he cuddles with me and other times with DP. It's too cute.

I love watching him snuggle his baby doll when he's just falling asleep. They are so sweet together.

And I love waking up to his coos and snuggles every morning. Who wouldn't want to wake up to a cute baby and a loving partner in their bed?


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## ladybug13 (Oct 29, 2005)

I haven't read all the responses but I'm sure some of these have already been mentioned. My favorite things are feeling and smelling DD's breath on my face and being there _the moment_ DD wakes up and seeing the HUGE grin on her face when she sees me. I also love that when DD is hungry, she doesn't have to become wide-eyed awake to let me know she's ready to eat. I love that I can just nurse her right then and there, comfortably and we both drift peacefully back to sleep (most of the time). I am working on not minding the kicks to my gut in the middle of the night though.


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## Beppie (Oct 24, 2005)

DD#1 is newly weaned, but I am in NO rush to have her move out of our bed, I just love it so much! The cuddling, the way she molds her little body to fit alongside mine, is so sweet.

And it's so sweet when she wakes up in the dark and whispers, "Mommy?" and I say "I'm right here, sweetie" and then she goes right back to sleep with that cozy look on her face.

It's also cute when she crawls to the place in between DH and I and cuddles up with him. that is sweet.

The other day the 3 of us went on a walk together. DD has just turned two, and we watched her walk ahead of us down the sidewalk with a very happy, confident way about her. DH laughed, "how did she turn out so secure in her little person?" and I could only say, "because she sleeps in our bed!" and DH had to agree. She has no insecurities at this age. and it makes me happy to see her that way.


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## seoul_mama (Jul 10, 2007)

I echo the sweet stories most of you have shared. There are so many things to chose from and I would say that more recently, what I love most, is that my DS (12 months) is an EOE: an equal opportunity eater! He is now in the habit of nursing on one boob while eyeing and fiddling with the other - Almost as if to avoid having the boob that he's not nursing on feel left out, he goes from one boob to the next - back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.... you get the picture.


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## dajones (May 28, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *lemurmommies* 
I love not having to be that crazy mom who gets up 10 times a night to make sure DS is still breathing; I can just look over and assure myself that he's still there and doing fine.

I was that crazy mom for three whole nights when my infant DS slept in a bassinett next to the bed, we have been cosleeping ever sice.

I love that I can meet their needs all night w/o loosing too much sleep.


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## rachellanigh (Aug 26, 2006)

I love how his mouth sucks an imaginary breast after he has unlatched.


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## mommy2two babes (Feb 7, 2007)

I love co-sleeping with my two.
I love being able to nurse them both at once while laying down at least half asleep. I love watching them hold hands across my chest in thier sleep.
The other night I went in because I heard DS waking up ( before I went to bed) I stood in the door way and watched him crawl over to DD eyes cosed and fall back asleep as soon as he touched her hand. I love being able to cuddle my babes anytime I want through the night and visa versa.


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## ryansma (Sep 6, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *mommy2two babes* 
The other night I went in because I heard DS waking up ( before I went to bed) I stood in the door way and watched him crawl over to DD eyes cosed and fall back asleep as soon as he touched her hand.

Awwww!


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## cheygirl (Jun 13, 2006)

Last night DH and I got to bed late. As we crawled into bed, I whispered, "there's a little baby in our bed!"

"Wow", he said, "that's great. It's kinda like when they leave a mint on your pillow, or a little origami crane."

After a pause, he asked, "is it a real baby, or just an origami one?"

I replied, "a real one. She's all soft and warm."

"This is a classy joint!" he replied. We laughed and went to sleep.


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## naturegirl7 (Jan 27, 2005)

All the extra sleep I get







No real waking up, no getting out of bed and stumbling blindly in the dark to find an unhappy babe. Instead I wake up *just enough* to latch him on/pull him close or switch him to the other side and we both are snoozing again. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and the only reason I know DS nursed in the night is that he is on the other side of me









Feeling his warm little body snuggled against mine.

The new mom anxiety of wondering if he is still breathing was easily remedied with a quick listen and gentle touch to his back to make me feel calm enough to sleep - no pacing back and forth between our room and a nursery or the crackle of a monitor.

LOTS of extra sleep when he was an infant and nursed all night long.

The comfort and security of knowing that I am right there if he gets sicks or runs a fever during the night.

Snuggling in bed at night with DH wrapped around my back and DS nursing at my breast - it is heaven on earth.

The sweet smile (and hugs and kiss) that greets me in the morning or after naps.

I LOVE our mornings together. DH gets up and goes to work, we wake shortly after that for snuggles, hugs, kisses, nursing, and then snuggling together in bed alternating between nursing and reading books or sometimes doing both. That 30-45 minutes in the morning is our special time. A perfect way to start the day - probably what I will miss the most as he grows up and leaves our little nest - and one of my most cherish memories/routines this far.

I also love Sunday mornings when he wakes up and realizes Daddy is still there, and bounds across the bed, grinning, giggling, and screaming "dadeeeee!" and the three of us snuggle, tickle, and just enjoy each other. Lately he has started to sneak over, pounce on top of DH and "ticky-ticky-ticky" him - a brutal toddler tickling that is just adorable and painful all at the same time. LOL


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## naturegirl7 (Jan 27, 2005)

I also love when he starts dreaming and talking in his sleep. A few weeks ago, he rolled over and started giggling- i thought he was awake, but he wasn't. He giggled and started mumbling, then he got a HUGE grin on his face and started QUACKING in his sleep!!!







It sounded like he was singing the Raffi 5 Little Ducks song, and at the end, he smiled his beautiful smile and drifted back into a calm, quiet sleep. I would have totally missed that moment if I wasn't in bed with him.


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