Do You Need Co-Sleeping Gear?

Posted by joy

20 Feb

We had no intentions of sharing our small full size bed with a newborn, but fatigue quickly convinced us to co-sleep. My son’s nursery sat untouched for the first few months of his life, as he either slept in the sling or in bed with us. Any other attempts were encountered with hours of shrill tea kettle shrieks that drove us to comply with his terms.

With our daughter, we were thrilled to borrow a co-sleeper from friends. We blissfully imagined having the bed to ourselves while our newborn snoozed safely nearby. In the end, my daughter utterly refused to be anywhere except right up against me while she slept. We found this out after breaking the co-sleeper while setting it up and sending it back to the company for repairs that cost just as much as the item itself.

If I had known we were going to co-sleep I may have been tempted to buy gear that my babies would have refused to use. We transitioned them to a secondhand crib at around five months, so the nursery did get plenty of use.

Did you use your co-sleeper? Did you keep a bassinet or a moses basket in your bedroom, or did you put your infant to sleep in a traditional crib? (If so, how did you handle all those night feedings?) Were you blessed with a newborn who enjoyed sleeping for long stretches in a separate space from you?

Filed under: Baby Care, Baby Gear, Family Life, General, Natural Childbirth, Product Reviews, The Green Household

RSS feed for comments on this post

4 Responses for "Do You Need Co-Sleeping Gear?"

Betsy (Eco-novice) February 20th, 2012 at 9:33 am 1
My solution: a bigger bed. We now have a king. I tried half-heartedly to have my babies sleep in a pack n play next to the bed, but ultimately we were all happier snuggled up together in the same bed (not that the family bed is always blissful). I still need to get around to selling that barely used pack n play on Craig’s List. I get plenty of good sleep with my babies (I love nursing in my sleep). It’s my toddler that often causes us to lose sleep…
Jana February 20th, 2012 at 11:54 am 2
My daughter slept in her crib at night after her second or third night. She was a frequent nurser and I finally had to set an alarm every time I went in to nurse her because I would fall asleep with her in my arms in the recliner for several hours (after which she would refuse to be put down). This resulted in a lot of pain for me in the weeks I was healing from after her birth- in my knees, legs and tailbone. Our second child is due any day now and this time I plan to have her/him in a bassinet beside the bed. Not sure how this will affect my marriage as my husband isn’t too keen on the idea. He remembers the pain I was in and so is willing to give it a shot. Thankfully our daughter, now 17 months, is a superb sleeper and doesn’t wake through the night!
Chloe February 21st, 2012 at 1:00 pm 3
Our daughter was always a good sleeper starting from day one! She slept in a crib in our room until she was 5 months old. When I nursed at night I just sluggishly walked to her crib and brought her back to bed with me. Sometimes we both ended up falling asleep together in my bed, but more times than not she was put back in her crib and I got a good nights sleep!
MelodyR February 21st, 2012 at 3:18 pm 4
My 6.5 month old son used his crib for the first time last night! Our routine is for me to side nurse on the bed with him until he’s deeply asleep then transfer him his bed in our room. Then when he wakes to nurse the first time bring him to bed to nurse and co-sleep the rest of the night.

He slept in a used co-sleeper for the first 6 months. Now our big boy is using his crib (in our room) for the first few hours. And the really good news is that in the last week he has gone from waking every 1-2 hours to waking every 3-6 hours!!!!