The facts about co-sleeping
Sleeping with your baby is beautiful and natural, sadly, it isn’t the safest place for the baby. A baby is safest in a crib with a tight fitted sheet and no toys or blankets or bumpers. However, somewhere between these juxtaposing notions is the reality of having a newborn. I have recently admitted to co-sleeping with my two month old, I swear to you, I do it with one eye open. Explains my exhaustion a bit, no?
Jackie, of Nursing Your Kids, recently wrote a very thorough entry about the dangers of sleeping with your babies and young children. She also notes that if you are set on sleeping with your children, there are ways to do it safely. Keep pillows and loose bedding away from the baby. Keep the baby on his back. You can also use a co-sleeper or a snuggle nest.
If you cornered a group of new mothers and asked them (in secret of course) if they slept with their baby, a good amount of them would confess. The practicalities are endless, really. Nursing is much easier and you both get more sleep. That isn’t to say that safety should be tossed to the curb, but when you are facing your second and third MONTH of 4-hours-of-sleep-a-night you get a little desperate.
I think it is hard for any new first-time mother to know for sure what her baby’s sleeping habits will be and where the baby will sleep. I do recommend knowing the ways to co-sleep safely and also having a safe crib nearby in case co-sleeping isn’t for you, or if you are lucky enough to have a baby who sleeps alone for extended periods of time, you know, like, more than fifteen minutes.
Supposedly, underground co-sleeping is so wide-spread that Babytalk magazine is running a survey about sleep habits. Click here to participate.
Leave a Reply