# How do you REALLY cosleep with your baby?



## veganf (Dec 12, 2005)

I know you're "supposed" to have no blankets, no pillows, not get baby overheated, have your mattress on the floor, have them sleep on their backs, etc. etc. etc.
Now, how many of us really do all that. And which things don't you do?

To be honest, we have a high bed with just a toddler rail on one side. He often sleeps on his side next to a stuffed animal bear, my blankets are often covering his lower half, and I use two pillows, one turned sideways to nurse comfortably.

So there.









- Krista


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## HollyBearsMom (May 13, 2002)

Our co-sleeping is the same now at 5 yo as it was as an infant. We used blankets, pillows and he slept in the middle between us. We all dress very lightly- he was in a onsie as an infant and now wears tees and boxers in the summer, cotton jammies in the winter. I did say that he didn't always sleep on his back as an infant but that was just because we BF. I would lei on my side and before the babe could roll over on his own I place him on his side to nurse so we could both fall back asleep. When I put him down for naps, etc it was always on his back.

edited to add that our bed is off the floor too but I do have big cushies sheepskins on each side.


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## dachshundqueen (Dec 17, 2004)

when DD was tiny we co-slept without blankets but with her in a sleep positioner in the crook of my arm, no pillows either.

the older and more mobile she got, we had to get rid of the bed frame and box, then the box came back and we were able to add blankets and pillows. I.e. we knew she could move the blankets away if she was hot.








cosleeping rocks.

Liz


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## Jazzmin (Jun 29, 2006)

We hava a high bed with 2 rails. We have pillows and blankets- can't imagine being without them. He rolls, so I cannot control if he sleeps on his back or front.

When he was a newborn I was more "by the book" when co-sleeping.


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## GooeyRN (Apr 24, 2006)

DD is 12 months old. She sleeps with her head on a pillow, on her tummy, next to dh. We use a thick comforter. She also sleeps in sweatpants and a sweatshirt, socks and slippers. We do not have rails on the bed. Yes, she fell on the floor already. About a 3 foot drop. I am usually not in the bed with them, since she flops all over and is a major bed hog, crying if I don't get out of bed to give her more room. She prefers to snuggle with dh.







She loves him more. So you probably can't get more unsafe than we sleep. We did not sleep like this when she was little, though. I don't worry about sids now that she is older.


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## Snowdrift (Oct 15, 2005)

Blankets, pillows, baby sleeps in a diaper and a t-shirt most nights. Mattress on the floor.

Baby sleeps with DH if I'm up late.

We dress her warmly before she goes to sleep at eight or nine and then change her into a fresh diaper and a t-shirt when we go to bed.

She sleeps however she is comfortable, which is not always on her back. Usually on her side, although if it chilly when she goes to sleep I swaddle her in a fleece for warmth and then she is restricted to her back.


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## NaomiLorelie (Sep 2, 2004)

We use pillows and blankets. I don't usually dress DD3 (3 months) too warmly because we snuggle under the covers together. She doesn't sleep on her back because she is permanantly attached to the boob at night. And DD2(2 years old) sleeps with us. We did the exact same things with DD2 and somehow she thrived.


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## josh&davesmomme (Feb 24, 2006)

when ds was little we followed the "rules" now I use a blanket and pillow... yet I wrap the blanket around me tight so it's fitted like a tight sleeping bag, I use a pillows but always be sure to push it back away from ds and have one at my back to give support while nursing on my side. I voted that he sleeps on his back but he's beginning to sleep in all kinds of wierd positions now, most are variations of back and side but occasionally he is on his tummy but being over a yr old I don't think there's much danger. His big brother does come into our bed ocasionally but they never sleep next to each we put older ds in the middle and baby is either in his side car or in our bed on my side.


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## broodymama (May 3, 2004)

Our bed is off the floor, DD sleeps between me and the Snug Tuck pillow. I use a pillow and we have blankets on the bed, however the pillow is away from her and she is not covered by the blankets. I am covered usually to my waist. Since she is not covered and our house gets cold at night I dress her warmly, usually in fleece jammies right now. She sleeps on her side, stomach or back, depending on her mood. She'll roll over into the position she wants.


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## ohiomommy1122 (Jul 7, 2006)

DD is 6mo old and we have the mattress and box springs on the floor ( still pretty high though) I have a side rail on the side she sleeps on. She is usually in a onsie and shares covers with me (she likes the body heat) she is like a heat seeking missle if I move away she will scoot right next to me. DH sleeps on my other side She rolls but does not crawl yet. and sleeps on side and tummy usually she prefers tummy unless nursing.

When she was an infant she usually slept on my chest and my 5 year old slept next to me ( he felt left out that she was in bed and he wasn't) my now 6 year old sleeps in his own bed most night but sometimes will climb into bed w/ us to if he gets up to pee.


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## JustJamie (Apr 24, 2006)

I voted based on how we used to co-sleep, before DD went into her own room.

We used blankets and pillows (I have some adorable pics of DD with the blanket, curled up on the pillow), she slept between DH and I (I was more worried about her rolling off the bed than him rolling on top of her), she slept on her back/side/stomach/however she wanted - including sitting up a few nights. Our bed was on a frame, about knee-height. (have a new bed that is box springs/mattress on the floor, but it's the same height as the old bed on the frame.)


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## kwren23 (Jul 28, 2006)

the bed is off the ground. we use pillows and blankets in winter, just a sheet in the summer. baby is dressed somewhat warmly because while we have blankets she sleeps on top of them as she cant stand being covered. i have a bed rail on my side of the bed, she gets flipped from between dp and i to my side dependning on which boob i put her on. she sleeps on her back or on her side, mainly on her side in the crook of my arm. we've been doing pretty much the same things since she was born.


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## treemom2 (Oct 1, 2003)

When DS was a newborn I did not allow him to sleep next to DH as DH is a very heavy sleeper and I was afraid he would harm our DS. However, I slept with pillows (under my head and a body pillow) and blankets over me. I put DS in a sleepsack against the wall. We sleep with our DD as well as our cats in the same bed. DS never was a back sleeper, he would only sleep on his tummy from day one. I never have worried about my children co-sleeping however, when DD was a newborn and we had her in a crib in the same room I worried all the time. No, we don't follow all the "rules", but we do other things to prevent SIDS and suffocation--like BFing, attachment parenting, not smoking in the home, etc. . .


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## ewe+lamb (Jul 20, 2004)

we use pillows and duvet (







), a sheet in the summer, ds and dd for that matter kick off the duvet/sheet all the time, the bed isn't too high up off the floor and we have sheepskins to break a fall! DD joins us most mornings at about 4/5 to get some snuggle time Kian sleeps on his side/back/front whatever so no we don't followed the rules as such but so far we've been quite alright and we LOVE sharing sleep, its the best part of the day!


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## rob's_mom (Oct 20, 2006)

DS is 1 month old and he either sleeps on my chest or next to me. We use blankets and pillows, but he has a sleep sack and the pillows are far away from his face. He hates anything to cover his face, even for a sec, and starts to grunt very loudly and hit it away - so I don't worry anymore. I do keep him away from DH who is a very deep sleeper.

Our bed is really high, so as he becomes more mobile we'll have to consider other arrangements - like moving the bed against the wall.


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## Mama Poot (Jun 12, 2006)

Henri sleeps right next to me or between dh and I. I can't just stay on one side, and I try to not nurse him on one side only at night, lest I have one huge, sore boob in the morning. He wears cotton sleepers, and when it gets really cold a sleep sack. We keep the house cold at night, so we bundle up. We use blankets ( who doesn't? I'd freeze to death! ) and sometimes Henri rolls over onto his side. We do have a co-sleeper as a safety precaution, however sometimes I will put Henri there so I can stretch out. I have some serious back problems and this is necessary for me sometimes.
Its funny how differently we do things now as opposed to our first child. I was sooooo paranoid about suffocating him and I never got decent sleep because I was worried about him.


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## Valkyrie9 (Sep 29, 2006)

We have blankets and pillows, DD is usually on her side because that is her breastfeeding position, and the bed is off the floor with a bed-rail. And she alternates which side of me she's on, so half the time she's between DH and I.


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## Hollin (Jun 26, 2005)

blankets, pillows, pillowtop mattress. DS doesn't sleep on his back, but the doctor said it was ok since he's rolling there himself.


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## minkajane (Jun 5, 2005)

DS is almost 2 now and rarely cosleeps with me anymore (he sleeps alone or with STBX in a twin bed with a rail), so I'm answering for when DS was little and we coslept all the time. For the first couple of days, I didn't use a pillow, then I brought it back and just made sure it was well away from DS. He was born in the winter, so he was almost always dressed in winter PJs and we always used a blanket. The bed is off the floor and we had no rail. He normally slept on his side facing me, but occasionally would sleep on his belly on my or his dad's chest. We even occasionally slept on the couch with him, laying him on our chest, or in the crook of our outside arm.


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## orangefoot (Oct 8, 2004)

I have a spelt pillow which I turn so it only takes up half its usual space. dd (8 weeks) mostly sleeps between me and the end of her sisters bed which is butted up at a right angle to ours. She has her own blanket knitted by my mum but sometimes I cover her with our light duvet instead of the blanket.

She sleeps on her side and doesn't settle well on her back. By the early morning she is between me and dh but this is his third co-sleeping experience and he is very aware of who is where in the bed.

In the UK there are no official safe co-sleeping guidelines. The only safe place for your baby to sleep is "In a moses basket (bassinet to you) next to your bed for the first six months"

When I asked my health visitor why there was no safe info in my new baby pack she said that they were discouraging people from doing any kind of co-sleeping as the only baby deaths in the county that year had been co-sleeping ones. When I probed further it turned out these were sofa incidents not bed incidents and two had been dads sleeping with the baby.

I told her that I thought the lack of good info was a problem because many people do co-sleep but don't tell anyone about it and lack of information leaves parents in limbo.


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## sapphire_chan (May 2, 2005)

Why no blankets? Advertisements for cribs have blankets over the babies all the time? Is that recommendation just to give ammo to the "co-sleeping is unsafe" argument if there is a problem? "Oh they had a blanket, that must have been the cause."


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## Wolfcat (Jan 10, 2006)

He wears footies, so I don't think that that is "_very_ warmly". We use blankets and I haven't moved or removed any pillows. He has always slept or rolled to his side. The only reason he doesn't sleep with/next to DP or older sibling is because there is no DP/sibling.














:


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## Flower of Bliss (Jun 13, 2006)

We use pillows and blankets. DD usually sleeps on her side, facing me. Sometimes she rolls onto her back. If I move too far away she'll roll onto her belly looking for me.









For the first 1-2 weeks I was paranoid. I was careful to keep her far from both the blankets and the pillows. She slept in the middle for fear of her rolling







off the bed. I was also afraid to put my arm around her for fear of suffocating her (from the weight of my arm across her chest







).

Now we have a rail on my side. The bed is on its frame. Depending which side she nursed last she's in the middle or on my side. She'll happily snuggle with DH. She keeps the covers up to her chest. She actually puts her arms over them - so cute.

Also, our 3 cats sleep in the bed too. Callie usually sleep on my pillow or on DD's side if she's on the edge, Racer sleeps on DH's chest, at his side, or at his feet, and Vector sleeps at our feet, or on the pillow between my knees. Our pup sleeps in her kennel by our bed.

We all love sharing sleep. I cannot begin to imagine having her in a crib, much less in another room.


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## newmommy (Sep 15, 2003)

How we co slept.

DS slept (literally) on our chests. Throughout infancy. He slept this way until 2.5 years old.

He preferred DH's chest. But that was the only way he slept.


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## mommy2abigail (Aug 20, 2005)

Yeah, we didn't really follow the guidelines to a T for long. When she was really tiny, before we really knew about the whole safe co-sleeping thing, I was so scared to have her in bed with me. So she slept in a bassinette next to me. But I'd often fall asleep with my arm draped over the bassinette, patting her or just my hand on her feeling her breathe. Then inevitably she would end up on my chest at some point in the night. So we gave up on the bassinette and brought her in bed with us. We both used pillows and blankets, just not covering her. She slept on her tummy from about 3 weeks on, she just hated being on her back. She rarely slept in between us, because dh could not sleep well with her next to him, he was scared he'd smoosh her. The only guideline we really followed was no co-sleeping on the couch. This was after I fell asleep in my glider and almost dropped her.


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## EvansMomma (Mar 7, 2006)

We use blankets and pillows, but nowhere near Evan's face or head. I only keep the blanket up as high as Evan's waist and he wears warm jammies to bed, and so do I. Our bed is off the floor, I refuse right now to take our bed apart. I love love love our bed, it was one of the first things we bought together and it's gorgeous. So I'm going ot wait as long as possible before I take it apart. In the meantime we have bedrails on the bed and pillows on the floor just in case.


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## mamamilkers (Nov 11, 2005)

Let's see, our bed is off the floor and she sleeps on top of a small fleece blanket with another small fleece blanket tucked around her chest and under her arms with the bed quilt over her torso on colder nights. I put a pillow next to her to "keep her on the bed", but she's nowhere near mobile yet.

The room is sooooo cold sometimes, so I put her in a long-sleeved onsie with a blanket sleeper over it, as well. Her little hands are like ice cubes in the morning! I hate turning on the baseboard heater, though, because it really only has two settings-- on or off. I also get freaked I'm going to set the apartment on fire while I'm sleeping if I leave it on!


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## VTMamaBee (Jun 15, 2006)

We use blankets and pillows although well away from Silas' head. We sleep on a pillowtop mattress on a frame off the floor. It's pushed up against the wall and we have a rail on the other side (although it's just serving to keep dh in bed these days). He spends lots of the night snuggled up against his dad- when he isn't at the boob- as he has since he was a newborn. I've never felt unsafe even though we're apparently "living on the edge". I guess I just do it from the gut rather than bow to the conventional, uber-safety conscious guidelines.

I also know how we're comfortable- and I wouldn't enjoy sleeping on my back on an ultra-firm mattress with no blanket to snuggle up underneath on chilly nights.


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## arratt (Apr 24, 2004)

I sleep with dd2(5 mo) in a raised bed, with pillows and blankets. I line the side of the bed with pillows so she doesnt roll off (not rolling yet but just in case) but soon Im going to have to put the bed against the wall for added safety. Dh has been in his own bed for the last couple years because he doesnt rest well with kids in bed. Although on occasion he will sleep a few hours with us and loves when dd snuggles into his armpit







Dd sleeps on side most nights attached to boob, otherwise on her back. I do dress her warm because she kicks the blankets off constantly and I dont have to wake up to cover her.

With dd1 I was more cautious the first few months about pillows/blankets (dh sleeps with one over his face and was worried it would end up on baby's face) but I lost all anxiety as she grew. I was worried because of all the negative info about co-sleeping I had heard/read. I soon realized that most of that info and those people who think co-sleeping is unsafe are the ones who dont do it themselves and probably have never tried it.


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## myrmom (Aug 19, 2004)

I sleep with ds in my arms or right beside me..he is always on his side. We use pillows and blankets and we have a pillow top mattress and it's off the floor...yeah we suck..lol.


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## lisap (Dec 18, 2004)

we have a high bed with toddler rails on either side and it goes dd (3), me, ds (5 months) and dh. we use blankets and pillows, but make sure ds is not covered too much.


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## Drummer's Wife (Jun 5, 2005)

DS is 20 months but we use a top sheet, blanket and two pillows. DS sleeps between dh and I and usually kicks off the blanket and scoots down so he's not on a pillow. I end up with all of the blanket on me cause I cannot sleep without something covering me. He's usually in a diaper only or jammies if it's really cold, but not often cause we just crank up the heat if necessary.


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## phathui5 (Jan 8, 2002)

We have:

- blankets
- pillows
- bed off the floor
- dad and older sibs in bed

OOPS.


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## wonderwahine (Apr 21, 2006)

he wears a sleeper, he has a blanket underneath him to catch any spit up or accidents so we dont have to change the sheets (LAZY!)







I still use my comforter, and i cover him with it, and I still use pillows in the bed. He sleeps on his tummy or side, ever since he could roll, he has determined how he sleeps.


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## witchbaby (Apr 17, 2003)

we sleep with 4 pillows, piles of blankets on a bed high up off the floor with no rails and about 1/2 time, he is right next to his daddy. we did the same with k after a month of me attempting to sleep without a pillow.


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## Boobiemama (Oct 2, 2002)

I was very careful when they were newborns, but after 6 months, I dont worry so much anymore.


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## Amylcd (Jun 16, 2005)

Baby sleeps on their belly on my belly/chest for the first month or two. We use pillows, blankets, and have the older siblings in the bed also. With Emmie there was only one older toddler... with this new baby, we will have a 5 year old, a 3 year old and of course me and DH in one bed.

Both of mine have fallen off the bed at very young ages ... i'm going to try to be more cautious about that with the new baby.


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## Luv2bemommy (Oct 26, 2005)

Almost all of these actually. We use blankets and pillows, the baby sleeps in the middle, out bed is off the ground and she sleeps on her belly most of the time..

That was when she was sleeping with us, all our kids did the same.


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