posted
It seems everyone nowadays—from LLL to Lego's pediatrician to just about every magazine—recommends it. Has this been going on for a while, or is it just the newest fad?
I know it has its benefits, but when I think about doing it, there seem to be a lot of reasons why it's not a good idea. One, I change Lego's diaper with every night feeding. If a night feeding just involves rolling over in bed, would the diaper change even happen? And if you're getting up anyway to change a diaper, what's the benefit of breastfeeding in bed?
Two, Lego needs to be burped after each side. If mom and baby fall asleep during the feeding, as those recommending it say, does baby get burped at all?
Three, the only way I can see it working the way people say it should involves the mother sleeping topless. And since baby can't move, wouldn't he or she just nurse on the same side all night?
Fourth, I just wouldn't feel safe having a baby in the same bed as two sleeping adults, a soft mattress, pillows, and large blankets. I don't worry about us rolling over on him, but I do worry about us pulling a pillow or blanket over his face and smothering him.
Finally, if a child has been sleeping with his or her parents, why on earth would he or she want to start sleeping in a bed? The worst I saw was a news story about a family where their 8-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter were still sleeping in the "family bed." Sorry, but I don't want older children in bed with me and Jon Boy.
I'm sure some of you do it. Explain to me why this is such a good idea. I admit, I just don't get it.
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posted
We did it with three of the five. It didn't involve being topless, and burping wasn't a big deal-- the breastfeeding happened more in spurts, rather than a full feeding, so maybe that's the confusion, there? Blankets shouldn't cause suffocation, but if you have a bunch of extra pillows, I don't know. We never had any problems with it. Nor did we have problems with moving the kids out around 2-3. Weaning from the breast was much harder than kicking them out of bed, from what I recall.
posted
I keep my babies in a bassinet right by the bed until they're too big, and they end up spending about 1/2 the night in my bed most nights. Do whatever you're comfortable with, that's my motto when it comes to babies. (As long as it's not smoking and blowing it in their faces or something.) What works for one family won't for another. All the babies usually turn out pretty okay in the end.
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posted
I disagree with the co-sleeping arrangements, especially if the kids are 2 or 3 as Jim-Me stated. If the children are always in bed with you and your spouse, when are you and your spouse..."alone"?
Personally, my wife and I have most of our important conversations in bed before we go to sleep. I can't imagine how that would work with a baby/toddler in the bed.
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posted
I've hard that there are other ways to make "couple time"; you just have to work at it. I don't think it's for me to judge another's relationship or how it works.
For a very pro-co-sleeping perspective, the classic read is The Family Bed. I've read it and don't agree with all of it, but it helps me understand why some people are so enthusiastic about it.
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posted
We had our daughter in bed until about 6 months, an now have our son (2 weeks) in a bassinet but occasionally in the bed. We didn't have any problems moving our daughter out of the bed and into a crib at 6 months.
I don't know how feedings work exactly, but I do know my wife will move the baby from the middle to the side during the course of the night so the baby nurses on both sides. My wife will drowse during feedings, then wake-up long enough to burp and switch sides. She doesn't sleep topless. Again, she wakes up just enough, in response to baby fussing, to get everything set-up, then drowses during the actual feeding. The main benefit seems to be that she is less wakeful because "setting-up" is less involved.
As a note, the reason we moved our daughter wasn't about being alone, at least not primarily; rather, a six-month-old is larger and squirmier than a newborn, and we started to find our queen-sized bed too small to fit two adults lying parallel and one infant trying her hardest to lie perpendicular.
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quote:we started to find our queen-sized bed too small to fit two adults lying parallel and one infant trying her hardest to lie perpendicular.
Heh, it's even more fun in a full with two adults, a two-year-old who wants the whole middle when she climbs in far too early in the morning, and a newborn you have to protect from the two-year-old...
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quote:we started to find our queen-sized bed too small to fit two adults lying parallel and one infant trying her hardest to lie perpendicular.
Heh, it's even more fun in a full with two adults, a two-year-old who wants the whole middle when she climbs in far too early in the morning, and a newborn you have to protect from the two-year-old...
We avoid this problem by having my wife kick me out of bed to deal with the two-year-old as soon as she wakes up, regardless of how early it is (generally 5:45). I'm sure KPC wouldn't mind an early wake-up...
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posted
But the poor guy was generally up until 11 getting her down, and so up later doing his stuff afterwards, then up at least once for a diaper change in the night with the other.
Plus, the toddler doesn't want to be up; she wants to cuddle with Abba. Sometimes I did kick them both out to the couch when I was hugely pregnant, though. That, or go myself.
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posted
Ruth, Rainbow slept with us for her first two months. It was the only way any of us got any sleep. We arranged the bed so that she had a cleared space in the middle of the head of the bed between us, protected by a bumper of rolled up blanket around her. That was more for my peace of mind than anything. I didn't sleep topless...when I was nursing, sleeping topless was an invitation to wake up with the top half of the bed soaking wet. I slept in one of my nursing bras. I also kept a small pile of clean washclothes on my bedside table for the inevitable cleanup needs.
Our routine came down to this: When Rainy woke up, I would sit up enough to nurse (propping pillows behind me...I kept a firm pillow on the floor on my side of the bed), both sides as normal. I'd burp her. Then Daddy would take her and change her diaper. Her changing table was in our room, so this was easy. We kept a night light on and it was enough to do the diapering. I'd go back to sleep while he diapered her.
I was very concerned about having her sleep with us, but our pediatrician assured me it was fine as long as we got her out of our bed before she was 3 months old.
Apropos of very little: our dog is about the size of a 6 week old baby. My husband loved sleeping with Rainbow in our bed all cuddled up in his arms (that's how the whole thing got started...her very first night in the world she slept in her daddy's arms). So he trained the dog to like it too, and now she sleeps between us in the same place Rainy used to take. She's nice and warm, but she snores.
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posted
Isn't there a three-sided baby bed that will come up right to the side of the parents' bed, eliminating the possibility of rolling over on the baby or the baby suffocating from the parents' bedding?
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posted
There is. There's also a product that's a little bed-within-a-bed that does what the rolled blankets did for them-- goes in the middle and keeps baby safely in one place. (You can also use it for a travel bed, put it on the floor or wherever when you go places.)
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posted
We had both our kids in the bed when they were babies. It was just easier for us, and everyone got more sleep that way. I didn't bother burping for night feedings, and I didn't get up to change diapers unless there was a really big poop in there. I wore nightclothes that made it easy to nurse - not necessarily "nursing clothes" but something with an opening that made it easy to breastfeed, and I nursed on both sides during the night.
I didn't really worry about rolling over on the baby - my husband and I found that we were very aware of the baby in the bed. Most parents are. A normal baby is also aware of you in the bed, and would struggle if he was squooshed or uncomfortable.
When our kids were newborns, we had them in a basinette or crib in our room, close by. Later, both our kids would start their nights out in the crib. We would bring them in the bed the first time they woke up after we were in bed. So we had some time alone in our bed when we first retired at night.
When the kids got too big and there just wasn't enough room in the bed, we "weaned" them to sleeping bags alongside the bed. They continued to get up in the night and join us on their sleeping bags well into elementary school age. When they were young toddlers, they would usually wake us up in the process, but when they were older, they just quietly slipped into the room for the comfort of being with mommy and daddy.
As ketchupqueen said, you have to do what works for your family. Frankly, I am surprised that your pediatrician is pushing co-sleeping. Most doctors that I know discourage it, though I disagree with their reasons.
La Leche League has some articles on infant sleep issues.
posted
Hmm...not to be voice of the paranoid scary, but I couldn't do it, based on some stories I have heard doctors tell. The chances may be very low, but I wouldn't want to take them.
The co-sleeper thing KQ is talking about would be okay with me, I think.
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posted
I just want to point out that it's scary how similar parts of my childhood are to JaneX and Shlomo's childhoods.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
I think if you are going to use the "paranoid scary" route -- you still could go either way. There was a story this week in the local paper about a family who was SO glad they had their child co-sleeping with them the night their house went up in smoke, because otherwise there would have been no way to get to her by the time they were awakened (by neighbors) to get her out..
As someone said above, what works for one family doesn't always work for another. Find your own way. I personally allowed co-sleeping most of the time, but I can see both the pros and cons.
I don't think this questions has a black & white right/wrong answer.
posted
I'm not a fan of co-sleeping. I personally don't feel that it's safe, but there are ways to make it safer. Here are some things I've read about safer co-sleeping: you should never co-sleep if you have a pillow top mattress or if your pets sleep with you. You should never use down pillows or bedding. You should never co-sleep with a preemie or a baby with respiratory problems or reflux.
My pediatrician, who is also a neonatologist, discourages co-sleeping and most of the magazines I've read are pretty neutral (i.e. don't want to offend large groups of readers). None of the nurses in the NICU, PCN, and PICU were in favor of it, either. My lactation consultant, who is not affiliated with La Leche, was neutral (for term babies).
This is just my opinion and experience. As the OCD mother of a micropreemie, I am overly concerned about safety and will eliminate anything with even a hint of a risk for harm. We have mesh bumpers on Aerin's crib b/c studies suggest that there's a link between padded bumpers and SIDS.
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posted
kat, it's amazing how much your convictions change when sleep deprived. I was very against it, especially as I have a terribly vivid imagination when it comes to disaster. I spent the first two years of both my children's lives envisioning ways my negligence would result in their deaths. But for some much needed sleep, the only balm against wild hormonal swings, I changed my mind. Rainbow just wouldn't sleep very long in her crib. Happy, sweet baby, but she wanted to be cuddled to sleep early in her infancy. She's still a cuddlebug, singlehandedly responsible for instituting a hug-hello and hug-byebye tradition at her preschool.
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quote:Originally posted by breyerchic04: I just want to point out that it's scary how similar parts of my childhood are to JaneX and Shlomo's childhoods.
posted
The paranoid scary voice kept me from trying it, even with twins. Talk about sleep deprived...
I just had so many misgivings based on the increased risks of SIDS when there is soft bedding, and I wasn't about to give up the comfort of sleeping with my pillows and blankets. What little sleep I did get, I wanted to relish.
My cousin, who was a promoter of it, tried to convince me by telling me this was what African tribespeople did - they slept with their babies. I told her that using as your example a culture with a shockingly high infant mortality rate was not the way to win me to her cause.
That said, I agree with what Farmgirl said about how it's not really a black/white issue. People have different levels of tolerance when it comes to certain things. True there are some things where the issue is black and white - like the necessity of car safety seats for infants, but this is not one of them. Do what feels best for your family.
It may depend on you, as parents, maybe you would feel fine with sleeping without pillows and minimal covering. I know in our case, it would never have worked. Hubby is a heavy sleeper and often rolls over on top of me in the night and I wake up and shove him back to his side of the bed. I could too easily imagine him rolling over on top of a little one that didn't have the strength or ability to move him off.
I would say if you do try it, take what precautions you need to and be smart about it. I like the idea of the little 3 sided bassinet, that seems like a good, safe compromise.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
We started out with our first daughter in a bassinet near the bed, but we quickly progressed to co-sleeping. We never had a problem with rolling over here, I didn't sleep topless but just barely woke up enough to nurse and then went back to sleep. I was working full-time and this helped a lot to cut down on sleep deprivation.
My dad was horrified when he found out about this. "You're going to warp them (the kids, emotionally) for life!" Well, my kids may have problems, but I seriously doubt that Amanda doesn't get her homework done because she slept in our bed until she was 2 1/2.
Amanda breastfed until 18 months (about the time I got pregnant again), Cayla until 2 years 3 months or so.
Obviously, I had a good experience. The only confirmed story I remember of a parent rolling over an infant involved a man who was drunk at the time. (Other than that incident in the Old Testament, of course.)
I guess my point is, it works for some people, it may not work for others, but it certainly doesn't make either group "bad" parents.
Posts: 2034 | Registered: Apr 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Mrs.M: Here are some things I've read about safer co-sleeping: you should never co-sleep if you have a pillow top mattress or if your pets sleep with you. You should never use down pillows or bedding.
Excellent points. If you are sleeping with a baby in the bed, the bed needs to be made safe for the baby. I should add "no waterbeds." (Does anyone have them anymore?)
posted
I can respond to your questions, but it will be in detail, and I hope it isn't TMI.
In the beginning, I would change his diaper after every night feeding. I had my little "diaper change kit" right there by the bedside. I used one of the water-proof pads I yoinked from the hospital to avoid messing the sheets. In fact, sometimes I slept with one of those under my torso because of general messy situations that might come up. But as the babies grow a bit older, I can "get away" with a diaper change before bed and another when we get up. The baby is usually only peeing at night, and the Huggies tend to soak it all up at night. So far, it hasn't led to diaper rash or undue discomfort for baby.
Second, in the beginning, I did sit up in bed long enough to burp the baby. But again, as the baby got older, they tended to not need this quite as much. Some of my babies needed it more than others. I would still at least "half-sleep" through most of the feeding. And even if I didn't sleep at all, my back and shoulders weren't taking any additional stress from it.
Third, I don't see why sleeping topless would be necessary. But to be more explicit, I will explain EXACTLY how I do it. I wear LDS garments, as, I assume, do you. I sleep in just garments, no PJs. I do not sleep in a bra. I wear nursing pads directly inside of a regular chemise-style round-neck top. Between my small-breastedness and the elasticity of the top, I just tug the top down far enough, and voila, teat access. When I am "extra-leaky," I am sleeping on one of those water-proof pads on top of the sheets.
When it is time to switch sides, I clutch the little one to me and roll to the other side, baby staying at my tummy/chest as I do so. Baby doesn't seem to mind too much. The one weakness is that I often end up falling asleep after the baby latches onto one side, so the baby sometimes gets a series of "half feedings" throuought the night rather than whole feedings the normal time apart.
Fourth, not knowing exactly what causes SIDS, I have not held all that strictly to the given guidelines. I try to use my best judgement for each situation. When in bed with baby, the baby is far more likely to suffocate from my breast covering his nose than from a blanket. Yes, I know they say it doesn't happen, but for whatever reason, my breast can *easily* completely cover the nostrils of my baby, causing them to not be able to breathe. In fact, it is somewhat difficult keeping it from happening. They have to back away and suck air. I have to trust that the baby *will* do this. And most of the time laying down, I have learned over time to situate the baby so it doesn't happen. But I honestly am far less concerned about the blankets and pillows!
Also, I am someone who stays aware of the baby even whilst I sleep. I don't toss and turn without waking up enough to be aware of it. Because I know this about myself, I don't worry about harming the infant from my own movement. I *do* worry about Porter rolling over on our baby. Some of it is irrational, some of it is the knowledge that he sleeps much more deeply than I do.
Finally, we have always moved the child to their own bed around 4 months. At this point, the baby becomes wiggly enough that I am quite disturbed and unable to get as good a night of sleep. The transition is somewhat hard, but they are young enough and sleep enough of the day without me, that sleeping without me some more is not that foreign. The transition isn't any harder than, say, weaning them from a bottle or pacifier or moving them from a crib into a bed. In fact, it might be the easiest on that list.
As for "together time," because the infant sleeping with us is so young and we have a king sized bed, I can have the baby asleep on one side and be cuddling with Porter on the other side. I can also stick the baby in the conveniently placed bassinet at the side of the bed.
But to be honest with you, Xerxes has been "needy" enough (wanting to be at the teat in order to be sleeping happily) that that "together time" hasn't happened as much this time around as previous babies. That is unfortunate.
posted
It did, thanks! I guess I'm just in a place where I know that getting up three to four times a night and sitting in a chair for forty minutes each time before returning to bed for an hour or two just isn't going to work much longer. But I had a lot of worries about co-sleeping, and I'm still not sure it's right for our family because Jon Boy has CFS and still needs to get up pretty early for work. I wouldn't want to compromise his new job in order for me to get a little more sleep at night.
posted
Depending on your couch, you might be able to get that to work. Of course, it would mean not sleeping with hubby, but then, you probably don't get a lot of sleep anyway right now.
I started the whole co-sleeping thing out of need for sleep. I just had to have it, and this is how I got it.
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posted
There is definitely a good deal of conflicting opinion and evidence about co-sleeping. My opinion (generally contra) reflects my training, but I have talked with parents who chose to co-sleep about ways to do it more and less safely.
I'd caution against sleeping in a couch or reclining chair with a baby, though, as this is one of those factors (like using cold medication or alcohol) which seems to be correlated with an increased risk of smothering. (Can't quite tell if that was being discussed or not, but given that couches and chairs have come up, I figured it was worth chiming in briefly.)
I don't often tell stories of my patients, as their lives and stories are their own and usually private matters. However, this is one I did promise those involved that I would tell: one night when I was the pediatric resident responsible for the ER, we had a woman and one of her twin babies rushed in by ambulance. The baby was being hand-ventilated by a paramedic, and the woman was hysterical with crying. The father couldn't bear to come in, and he was at home with the other twin.
She'd walked into the room after giving one baby a bath, looking for the other (they washed them separately, as they were just recently discharged from the preemie ward and were being very careful and diligent about everything). She didn't see the baby. Her husband was fast asleep on the couch, exhausted (no medications, no alcohol, just the struggle of dealing with two relatively new babies), having fallen asleep with the baby on his chest. The baby then slid down between him and the back of the couch and was suffocated. The baby was blue by the time she figured out what had happened and got her husband to wake up and roll over. [Edited to add: She said she spent several minutes looking around for the baby in the bedroom, etc., first, before waking her spouse.]
I don't know how the baby is doing long-term. They were only in my care very briefly, and then I was rotated on to another assignment. And, notably:
- the father was sleep-deprived - they were on on a non-standard sleeping item (i.e., not a flat mattress without any soft, spongy material around) - the baby was a preemie, even though now a few months old
These are all factors which seem to be correlated with having problems while co-sleeping. It was agonizing, though. I'll never forget it. I did promise the mother to talk about this if it came up elsewhere.
So I just did.
One anecdote, not a full argument. I take it as a lesson to minimize risks as much as possible, regardless of what general decisions are made. And if anyone is interested, one of the physicians who trained me wrote an excellent review [letter] that is primarily pro-co-sleeping for the journal [Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine], which I can track down if there is interest.)
posted
That is a very, very sad story. Thanks for sharing it. I think being aware of these things helps us moms make more informed decisions about how we will approach these kind of problems.
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quote:Originally posted by beverly: That is a very, very sad story. Thanks for sharing it. I think being aware of these things helps us moms make more informed decisions about how we will approach these kind of problems.
Exactly. And it is very important to be clear that this particular story had individual elements which make it rather inappropriate to extend to all circumstances.
Like you said, just some things to take into account. There are many good things that parents forbear who choose not to co-sleep, as well.
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Here is the text of the letter I referenced from [corrected to: Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, an AMA publication -- not Pediatrics, though, as I incorrectly first listed it]. Of note, this was a letter to the editor, not a peer-reviewed article. I do, however, know this pediatrician personally, and I am comfortable with the rigor she takes toward her practice and scholarship in general. She is absolutely fierce about being correct and thorough, and she has cited references for completeness' sake.
Her conclusion:
quote:To my knowledge, to date, the literature offers insufficient data to recommend or discourage babies and parents from cosleeping. Meanwhile, many parents and health care professionals believe that cosleeping is the best way to raise a baby physiologically, psychologically, and emotionally.
Therefore, are pediatricians justified in condemning the family bed, making parents feel guilty about harming their baby? Clearly, pediatricians must counsel families about the dangers of smoking, drinking alcohol, or taking drugs that impair arousal, and the potential for infant suffocation in beds, cribs, and bedding. However, until there is more compelling evidence, the decision to cosleep, like many other child rearing practices, should be left to the family.
Also note the appended recommendations at the bottom of her text (the part in bold). These are from the author of the site, and I think it is good advice. Can't vouch for the rest of the site, though -- I haven't looked around, just skimmed this letter to make sure the text he put up was an accurate copy.
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posted
Although a friend of mine did it with no mishap, I agree that sleeping on a couch with an infant could be dangerous. If you are sleeping with your baby, the number one concern should be that the sleeping environment is safe for the baby. I included some links about that above.
posted
We co-slept for a while, not because of any particular belief that it was the official best-thing-to-do, but just because we didn't have room to give the baby her own space, and it was more convenient for breastfeeding. We actually used a Boppy pillow as a bed-within-a-bed for the baby, keeping our blankets, pillows, and bodies away from her. It was a tight fit, but no horror stories.
I think it's really just a judgment call, and I don't think there is one right way to handle it. Our baby has her own room now, and we're happier with that arrangement, if only because it means we have a place to keep the baby stuff Posts: 1539 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
We co-slept with all three from birth until about 3 1/2.
Couple time? When we had just one, it was easy- we used the floor of his unused room while he was in bed. After we added Livvie, there was the couch, the bathtub, the kitchen counter, the backyard, um, lots of places.
I don't remember how nursing happened, just that it did.
Only you and JB know what will work for you.
Posts: 2711 | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by ketchupqueen: I keep my babies in a bassinet right by the bed until they're too big, and they end up spending about 1/2 the night in my bed most nights.
This is what I did, except I used a cradle.
quote:Originally posted by Ela: I should add "no waterbeds." (Does anyone have them anymore?)
Me. Although it is highly fiber-filled.
quote:Originally posted by Brinestone: I guess I'm just in a place where I know that getting up three to four times a night and sitting in a chair for forty minutes each time before returning to bed for an hour or two just isn't going to work much longer.
Yikes! I'm a big fan of lying down to nurse whenever possible. (One book I read said in regards to conserving energy while nursing, "If you're standing, sit to nurse; if you're sitting, lie down.")
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Hey, sitting is much better than pacing. But yeah. I do have an air mattress in the baby's bedroom, and I will often nurse him on it and then put him back before going back to bed myself (or staying on the air mattress for the rest of the night, depending on the circumstances). Lego learned to nurse lying down last week, and I have loved that.
Here's an unrelated question: He seems to nurse longer when I'm sitting up and cradling him in my arm than when he's lying by my side on the bed. Any idea why this might be?
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posted
Just a guess, but there's a good chance you are more relaxed lying down, and this communicates to him via your body language. Thus, he also relaxes more, and conks out faster. After some point in a feeding, nursing becomes less about eating, and more about soothing. And babies are VERY sensitive to body English, especially mom's.
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posted
My parents knew a woman who killed a baby by rolling over on top of it in her sleep. So I wouldn't do it, even though I would probably wake up instantly if I rolled over onto a small lumpy thing.
Posts: 910 | Registered: May 2000
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posted
We co-slept with our son until he was about a year old when he self-weaned (I was very sad poor mommy). We did have the Pack-n-Play (bassinet thing) right next to the bed, and I occasionally put him in there after the late-night feeding. I wanted one of those set-ups that was a three-sided bassinet that hooked onto the bed, but already had the Pack-n-Play and it seemed silly to buy yet another thing for our already thing-heavy child. *grin*
Our son rarely pooped (once a week, he had a seriously efficient gastro-intestinal system!) so late-night diapers were not an issue, although I did keep one of those vinyl protector pads under him in our bed (as mentioned upthread). Loose bedtime garments helped with feeding time.
Again, it's up to every family to determine what's right for them. I really appreciate all of the professional and anecdotal information, though. I may have another kid some day (I don't know if I am wishing for it to happen, or hoping that it doesn't--life is such an internal conflict sometimes) and everything I learn here is a blessing.
I'm a pretty heavy sleeper, but never had a problem keeping to my 'side' of the bed. And we had a queen sized bed at the time.
Very interesting stuff here, I love this place.
Posts: 1545 | Registered: May 2002
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posted
Like KQ said -- I did it mostly out of the huge desire to sleep -- when you are sleep deprived you feel like you will do anything to relieve the exhaustion and try to get some sleep.
Then again, I can sleep almost anywhere, really (I slept on the school bus as a child). So I could get up in a chair to nurse and fall asleep there, as well, still nursing the baby. My husband would wake us both up when he got up for work. (on those nights we didn't co-sleep). That probably wasn't the brightest thing -- but I just couldn't fight the sleep. I don't have narcolepsy, but I do fall asleep very easily, and it is a very overwhelming feeling.
posted
About sleeping topless: I sleep in a sleep nursing bra and pads (until the supply has regulated enough or we're down to few enough feedings that I won't leak all over), garments (I have some with nursing openings, but at night the regular ones work almost as well for me), and a cotton nightie that buttons up the front top (unless it's too hot.) I keep it unbuttoned and just pull it aside with the garments and the bra to nurse, and that works well. Of course, half the time I end up falling asleep while nursing, and the baby just pulls off and rolls over (and sometimes burps) when she's done. This means that I sleep with my breast exposed until she wakes me up again. This doesn't bother me. With Emma, the first month or two it led to some chapping, but I'm tough now, and it doesn't hurt me. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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I was very against it, especially as I have a terribly vivid imagination when it comes to disaster. I spent the first two years of both my children's lives envisioning ways my negligence would result in their deaths. But for some much needed sleep, the only balm against wild hormonal swings, I changed my mind. Rainbow just wouldn't sleep very long in her crib. Happy, sweet baby, but she wanted to be cuddled to sleep early in her infancy. She's still a cuddlebug, singlehandedly responsible for instituting a hug-hello and hug-byebye tradition at her preschool.
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