Sleeping with your baby.?

Question

My son is 5 months now. He goes down to sleep at 7 (falls asleep on his own fantastically) and currently sleeps until some time between midnight and 3:30 am. He wakes up and can't console himself back to sleep. He uses a soother already. I haven't been nursing him back to sleep at those times. What I have been doing is picking him up and just taking him to bed with me (without nursing). He falls right back to sleep and sleeps until about 4:30 (I nurse him then), then we sleep until 7 am.
I am ok sleeping together with him, because I really am not ready to let him cry it out and it seems to work, but am I messing him up? At some point I won't to sleep with him (maybe by 7 or 8 months) and am I just setting myself (and him) up for a really difficult time then? Any suggestions or should I just enjoy what is working? Thanks so much

I sleep with him in our guest bed, just the two of us.

Not asking about SIDS, just cosleeping and breaking the attachment later or if the baby/child will learn to appreciate and enjoy sleeping more later on. Please use spellcheck :)

Answer 1

Look, there are times when worries about future attachment problems are not nearly so important as getting sleep right now. Few things are *wrong* full stop. In most cases, whatever you are doing is right, until you don't want to do it that way anymore and it becomes the wrong thing to do. You'll know when you no longer want to co-sleep and will take steps to wean bub off it.

Answer 2

I did exactly the same thing you are doing now. By 7 months when I had had enough, it was an absolute nightmare to get him to sleep through in his cot and I had to resort to the cry it out thing. It broke my heart because I realised it was my fault that I let it get that far in the first place.
I do think that you need to stop sleeping with him now and settle him in the cot when he wakes in the early morning hours. When he wakes at 4.30 feed him in his room and then put him back down again, or feed him earlier and then he may not wake till 7 for another feed.
You don't have to let him cry, just cover him up, roll him to his side away from you and pat him on the bum with a sh,sh,sh,sh noise until he falls back to sleep. You may have to do this a few times till he is deeply asleep, but within a week he should be able to sleep much better through the night.

I really regret ever bringing bubs into the bed even though I acknowledge is was lovely and comforting, but at the end of the day he was better off in his cot so everyone could get some good shut eye.

best of luck

Answer 3

in my opinion, since he DOES fall asleep on his own, bringing him to your bed in the middle of the night won't mess anyone up.. Just think about why he wakes up at that time, and even if its to eat, feed him and lay him back down. The cosleeping dependency varies from child to child, so there is no telling how upset your baby will be when you stop this ritual. But i have always done what felt right with my baby. Whether it was cosleeping or not, i've always did what worked.. in your case, you're both getting some sleep =]

Answer 4

We coslept with baby until he was about 6 months old. It was the best thing for us since he was colicky and I was breastfeeding. (Just roll over and give him the bb! LOL)
Occasionally he still comes into bed with us at some point during the night but he mostly prefers his own space. (He's now 15mo) I say do what works best for your family.

There are safe cosleeping guidlines to prevent rollovers and accidents. (For example you are to sleep with baby on a firm mattress, not a couch or chair.) As you mentioned SIDS is completely unrelated to that and in some studies SIDS rates were reduced by colseeping.
Here's more info on safe cosleeping:
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/10/t102200.asp

And this book also helped me a lot with sleep issues:
No Cry Sleep Solution --
http://www.pantley.com/elizabeth/books/0071381392.php

Answer 5

We coslept with our son and we do so now with our daughter. She does not even have a crib- we wasted about $400.00 on our son's 11 years ago and he never used it. She is 14 months old now and has never spent the night alone.

Put your mattresses on the floor and against the wall. Sleep with your baby between you and the wall.

Our son has autism and was in his own bed by the time he was 2.5 years. He did it really easily too. We started when he was 2 by putting his crib mattress on the floor beside our bed and told him that was his own place. He took right to it. We readied his room and put him in after 5 months, and he did it. Easily.

I think it is a lot easier to teach a 2 year old to sleep alone than it is a baby....in my own experience.

Good luck!

Answer 6

i think of that it somewhat is a sturdy theory to get as lots relax as you may. I choose that i might desire to financial corporation it and then earnings while my toddler has been up all night (no longer an often prevalence). slightly one at 3 months old demands around sixteen hours of sleep. An person desires approximately 8 consecutive hours. the priority with being a mom, is that we don't get the consecutive hours. I probably sleep 10 hours an afternoon. My husband on the different hand, assumes that our little angel is going to be on his sleep time table and continues to be up (enjoying video games often) assuming that he will sleep till 5am. Then while our son gets up earlier, my husband is all upset that he did no longer get adequate sleep. he will learn finally.

Answer 7

My sister let my nephew sleep in the bed with her and now he is 3 years old and still sleeps with her. One of my mom's friend let her first child sleep in the bed with her and he continued to sleep with her until he was like 5 when she had her second baby and made him sleep in his own bed. But I guess it really depends on the baby. I let my 2 month old sleep in the bed with me sometimes, but I don't have problems getting her to sleep in her own bed when I want her to so I don't worry about it. I would probably stop when he wont sleep in his own bed at all.

Answer 8

babies usually wake up in the middle of the night when they are hungary. Both of my children would eat and go right back to sleep if they woke up in the middle of the night. Not to mention that its hard to sleep with a baby and my boyfriend. I usually don't let them sleep with me unless they are sick and I want to keep an eye on them. They actually don't sleep well at all if they sleep with me. They wake up all the time and toss and turn all night.

Answer 9

I wouldnt let him sleep with you at all the reasons are known but more than that its eaiser to break them now than it is later, i did this with my daughter and it was hard telling a 3year old to sleep in her own bed with my other 3 i did it right and it works so much easier on everyone after 3-5nights of them getting used to it, do it now while hes in a crib still much easier then putting them back in bed to! I hope I helped!

Answer 10

I say just do whatever makes you a better mom. A lot of people disagree with sleeping with your child. But, sometimes you just have to sleep to function. If you can handle him sleeping on his own which means you have to have him cry and all then do it. But, if you just can't then just do your best.