Co-sleeping. Have you done your research?

[adagiopassion]

I lifted this from another attachment parent. I feel very strongly that if listen to many outscpoken "experts" that you're doing your children an extreme disservice. After all- how do YOU feel about sleeping all alone

Comments

[goodjoan]

Hear Hear! The best expert on your baby is You and anyone who tells you that there is simply one way to raise your child you should run screaming from in the other direction. Mom and dad know their children best, from the texture of their skin to their smell to the way they should fall asleep at night. A good Dr. looks at symptoms and signs but knows to listen to mom for the real story!

[adagiopassion]

Thanks :) I just get SOOOO sick of hearing my friend's say, "My baby sleeps best with us, but I don't want them in the bed forever." or "I like co-sleeping, but I'm worried about hurting the baby." or the WORST- which I did see in an attachment parenting book, "There's just no safe way to co-sleep, I trust myself, but my husband might roll over on the baby." My husband is as acutely aware of where Lillian is in our bed, as I am.

I hope these links help someone

Re:

[goodjoan]

well, what if your husband was a big beer drinker? Or you sleep in a water bed? I suppose there are times that it's not safe but you always have the choice of sleeping somewhere else, it doesn't have to be an excuse to not co sleep. It's like the breast vs bottle debate. There are Lots of moms who had some issue and decided to bottle feed while other moms had the same issues but continued to nurse. You have to do what you feel is best for your family. I had one baby who flatly disliked cosleeping. Odd, I know but he slept better in his crib so we stopped co sleeping around 3 months. Dan even tried to coax him back in our room when he was older, or would bring him into our bed when he was sick or would wake at night and within an hour we would have to put him back in his own bed!

[adagiopassion]

That would be different (though I co-slep in a water-bed. My mom knew the risks, and would keep me in the middle of the bed) though, you can't make a blanket statment in a book that says, "If you co-sleep, either sleep in a different bed as the father, or put up a bedrail and you sleep between the father and the baby." with no qualifiers.

It's a personal decision, I just wish that more people would do more research before making a decision. Heck- I wish that *I* had done more research before co-sleeping. I felt like I was making a bad decision, even though I went with my gut feeling... I figured that our traumatized 10 year old would feel rejected when we told her that she must sleep in her own bed. That, or one of us WOULD roll over on her...

[the_leh]

I'm going to post that in my journal.

Hey, do you mind if I add you? I love having lots of AP mammas on my list and also, we live very close to one another. I happened to notice that when I was posting my city and state in boob_nazis. I'm in the north bay area...Santa Rosa (Sonoma County).