To co-sleep or not to co-sleep

One of our first challenges was trying to get her to sleep. The first night she was just so precious that we couldn't put her to sleep in that big cot all by herself. If I tried to put her down in the little snuggle bed that we bought to go into the cot she would wake herself up in ten or fifteen minutes. Which was no good for either her, Mr KR or myself. I eventually worked out that she was only interested in sleeping on top or next to me, which meant that our shiny new cot was going to waste.

We had two home visits from midwives in the first couple of days and they were very concerned that Miss Z was sleeping in our bed with us. Which made me very nervous. But still she wouldn't sleep anywhere else aside from next to me in bed. I found it amazing that when she was sleeping next to me I wouldn't move a muscle and kept her cradled in the curve of my arm. She was so little that it was easy to keep her away from pillows or the doona or other dangerous smothering type things.

I then started frantically reading my baby books, one of which Baby Love didn't seem to mind co-sleeping and another What to Expect in the First Year seemed to think that co-sleeping was the path to grown children who are still in their parents bed and 12 year olds who are breastfeed. Which was worrying.

But still it was the only way that she would sleep at night. During the day she would sometimes go to sleep in my arms and be transferred into her cot but night time was a different story. I suppose that it is because babies days and nights are reversed as they were lulled to sleep by the day time motion of the movement of their mum and so night time is party time. It takes a little while for this to change so in the meantime Miss Z was only happy next to me.

Co-sleeping seems to be a polarising issue in the baby world. A large number of my family seem to have strong objections to this, even though it is really only in the western world that we expect newborn babies to be all by themselves after so long as part of their mum. So after about seven weeks of co-sleeping I was getting a little tired of being kicked while the baby was sleeping so we have been able to move her to her snuggle bed which is at the foot of our bed. However it was great to have her next to me for eight weeks and sometimes she still sleeps next to me.