I forgot I even created this blog, but apparently I did back in 2010 a month after my son was born. He just turned two a couple of weeks ago. The point of this blog was to share some ideas that I found while I was researching parentdom. When you're a new parent there is so much information thrown at you that it can be a little overwhelming. Anything and everything can potentially kill or harm your child so now that my baby is two I'll share some basic things I've learned from reading and personal experiences. Now keep in mind most of what I write is based on personal experience and how my family has coped with each new milestone. I'm going to pick a hot button issue for this first post and I'll provide data for both sides of the issue.
First topic: Co-sleeping
Before my son was born my plan was to have him in a bassinet, in our room, for the first 9 months, and then have him transition into his crib. After about 2-3 weeks of this, our plan completely changed, and we decided that we were going to be a co-sleeping family. There were many factors that brought about this change. The first being that I decided to breastfeed. It was tiring to have to wake up, get him out of the bassinet, get in the rocking chair, try not to drop him or fall asleep while bfeeding, and then put him back in. Doing this 4-5 times a night makes you super cranky the next day. Also, I was extremely nervous and would get up and check to see if he was breathing every 10-15 minutes. This also effected my husband, I had a c-section and getting up was not easy for me that first month. I would wake him up every 30 minutes to check on our son on top of my 10-15 minute check ups. He would also get up and put our son in my lap to help me with bfeeding in the middle of the night. In short, neither of us was getting much sleep.
I really had reservations about this because you hear so many negative things in the media about co-sleeping and honestly I didn't want to be the one that smothered my child. Our first step was to talk to our pediatrician who from the get-go convinced us that we should be co-sleepers because of our choice to breastfeed. Our pediatrician is a holistic pediatrician with a medical degree so he's not your typical pediatrician. I explained my reservations and he assuaged my fears with plausible sounding co-sleeping research. I did my own research and this is basically what I found scary propaganda and also this more reasonable article from the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics).
Naturally, I decided to do more research and I found more information about co-sleeping that didn't equate co-sleeping with murder. We decided to get an arms reach bassinet because I felt that this would be the safest possible way to do it. When we finally received it, our bed was too short. If your bed is the perfect height for this bassinet, I would highly recommend getting it. They also sell little bumpers to heighten your bed, but my husband vetoed that idea. Since that didn't work, we found this product at our local baby supply store the snuggle nest. We used it for the first 4-6 months and it was perfect. It was a little hard to breastfeed him while he slept in it, so I just took him out then put him back in when he was done. I also like this product because it's mobile and you could take it anywhere with you. When I went to other people's homes I would bring this so that my son could take a nap comfortably.
We then transitioned to having him sleep in our bed with the bumpers that came with the snuggle nest. I found it easier to breastfeed because I just needed to roll over. It also made me feel a little safer with the bumper there, but honestly our son was never close to being smothered. I also want to make it clear that I was never inebriated when I slept with my son and we are not smokers. Those are the 2 highest factors that go against co-sleeping. So here's a little pro/con list in regards to my family's choice to co-sleep.
PROS:
-It made bfeeding 100 times easier
-I could sleep and feel rested
-My husband would get a full 8 hours of sleep because he never had to wake up to help me
-Our son would sleep for 4-7 hours at time before needing to breast feed (around 3-4 months old)
-He also got up later in the morning and not at 4 or 5am like he used to in the bassinet
-The bond between us is still very strong even till this day
-My internal clock synced with his and I would wake up a minute before he was ready to feed
-He was a very happy and well adjusted baby who let anyone and everyone hold him
CONS:
-None for our family
Again, I'm not recommending co-sleeping I'm simply stating that it was easier for us as a family. There is also the myth that once your baby is in the bed you're stuck with them forever. It only took us about a month when he was 16 months to transition him into his own bed. There wasn't a lot of fighting on either of our parts and he transitioned pretty well. The only time we have issues is when we are traveling. We normally let him sleep with us when we travel so it takes a couple of days for him to transition when we come back home. Now I may have been gifted with an easy going child and that's why it wasn't hard for us, but we'll have to see what happens the next time around.
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