# Co-Sleep (newborn) w/Pillow-top mattress?



## D_McG (Jun 12, 2006)

Hi - this board was recommended to me. First time here!

Our son is 9 days old. Day one and two we tried to get him to sleep in the bassinet next to our bed. No chance! So now he and I are on our full sized mattress on the floor and my husband is on the floor next to us. It's a short term measure until we get a larger bed.

We went bed shopping last night and ordered a Kind sized pillow-top. Now I am panicking because perhaps a pillow-top is not safe? Is this true?

Also - any thoughts on the snuggle-nest?

Thanks.
Deirdre


----------



## lunamegn (Nov 30, 2004)

Hi Deirdre ~ Welcome! Well, when we co-slept with my baby when he was a newborn I removed all pillows from the bed except for the one I slept with. I think with a newborn, it's best to have a firm mattress because little ones don't have the muscle tone to move if they get stuck or end up in a place where they can't breath. The less pillows the better and the firmer the better when they're very young. When the baby gets older and stronger, it might be okay to have the pillow top but for now, I wouldn't have one.

Oh, and never leave your baby sleeping alone on the bed by themselves! Hope that helps a little.


----------



## momtoNatalee (Nov 20, 2005)

Welcome!!! You are so lucky-a king size- I wish we had a king. We have a queen pillow top and dd has co-slept w/ us since birth. I know they do not recommend a pillow top mattress when co-sleeping w/ a baby but ours is actually very firm IMO and felt very safe. If you are worried about it maybe you could get something like this

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html...sin=B00012CHFI


----------



## lurve (May 5, 2006)

also i think the "humanity bed" might be a good solution (it's one i am looking into!)


----------



## monkeymimi (Jul 16, 2005)

We started out with a snuggle nest - I always woke up with my face smashing down the side, trying to get closer to my babe. After a week we just put it away=


----------



## MarieClaire (Oct 7, 2005)

Yeah, pillow-top mattresses are not recommended, but we used one anyways and it didn't seem like dd was sinking into it too much. I always felt very safe. We do have a nice tight matress cover/pad thing over it that I think helps.


----------



## Sijae (May 5, 2006)

I wouldn't worry about pillow top at all. It's not like you'll be sleeping in a pool of pillows







I co-slept with all three of my newborns in many different sleeping situations. The most recent one was a king-sized pillow top









Laura


----------



## DahliaRW (Apr 16, 2005)

I agree with the pps, it's not recommended, but I don't think that it's unsafe either. We coslept with my ds on a pillow top since he was a couple of weeks old. I was more worried about the blankets getting over his head than the mattress!


----------



## [email protected] (May 24, 2005)

We co-sleep on a pillowtop mattress. I've found dd just doesnt have the weight on her to sink in







I'm sure that when she gets bigger she will, but by then she'll have the muscles in her upper body to move around, kwim?


----------



## SweetPotato (Apr 29, 2006)

We slept with our dd since about 4 days old (yeah- the bassinet by the bed didn't cut it!) on a plush top mattress. I think she was fairly safebecause I could prop her against my chest and she wouldn't move too much, so I felt secure that her head was alwways pointed up or out. I was, and still am, very aware of her throughout the night and never woke to find her in any position that seemed unsafe. That said, if I was getting a new mattress I'd definitely go for something firmer ( you can always add a feather bed down the road when you're done having babies in the bed). Until dd got older/stronger, I was very wary of nursing her lying down because her face would end up so squished near the mattress and I was afraid I'd fall asleep. On a firmer mattress I felt much safer doing this and really enjoy the fact that I can go back to sleep!

We tried the Target cosleeper linked above and found that, on the plush top mattress, it wouldn't stay flat and so dd would slide up against the side of it. I felt better having her breathing space totally open, and not having that big hard thing in our bed.

Hope this helps-- congrats and good luck!


----------



## treemom2 (Oct 1, 2003)

Welcome to Mothering!!! We have a pillow top mattress that we've co-slept on with both of our children with no worries. I do keep pillows away from them when they are newborns and I really like the sleep sacks because I am paranoid about blankets over their faces, but I've never worried about our mattress.

Congratulations on your new babe--I started coming here right after my DD was born and have received tons of great info from these moms!!


----------



## D_McG (Jun 12, 2006)

I thought I had set this thread up to alert me when there were responses but I only got one alert. Now I see many more of you were helpful. Thanks very much!

We wound up canceling the order for the King-sized not least because I researched the brand (Spring air?) and it got bad reviews (no wonder it was half off!). So tonight we'll go and get a firmer mattress.

Thanks very much! I am active on another board and my co-sleeping question was greetied with dire warnings of 18 year olds refusing to leave the parents bed.









I think I'll like it here better!

Deirdre


----------



## snarfywarning (Dec 11, 2005)

D - I am one of those awlful co-sleeping parents that you hear so much about. Feather top mattress, pillows, blankets!! The only thing we added to our bed was our son. We keep the sheets tight over the mattress, so it is pretty firm, and he doesnt sink in much. From the day he was born, he would LET you know if there was a blanky or a pillow covering his face. If you want, you could do a little expriment I learned from someone else on MDC. Take a corner of a blanket, and just rest it on your babes face (dont smother him or anything!) and see what he does. My son starts screaming and gurgleing and arms flailing immediatly. Some babies don't do this, but it made me feel safer about the occational blanket on his face. I just make sure that my blanket (a comforter!) is tucker under his arms and under his butt before we go to bed, and we have never had any scary incidents in the 4 months he has been in our bed. If you don't wanna risk it, just get those blankets with the holes in them that still keep you warm. Those are just as good as big blankies.

Hope that any of this helped.


----------

