Co-sleeping.

Co-sleeping, sleep-sharing, bed-sharing, what ever you want to call it, has been one of the most debated subjects when it comes to newborns and motherhood. I have found myself in many discussions about it and have found alot of people aren't educated enough on the subject, they simply make things up or go from guidelines without researching the subject at all. I myself have to research something before I can put my view across I like to see something from both point's of view before making my mind up on where I stand with something. It's something I did before I gave birth to Eva and something I did again before having Archie. I was amazed at the difference from then to now.

Note : Eva did not sleep with my covers over her.

Back in 2009 when I first looked into co-sleeping almost every website highlighted all the risks and how you shouldn't under any circumstance sleep with your baby. I struggled to find any websites that offered advise about the subject. I think this was why my view for a while was "why put your baby at risk?". Of course I no longer think this way, but at that time I did. I was completely against the whole thing so when I began co-sleeping with her I felt awful and vowed not to do it the next night. Over time this feeling did go and we got into a good bedtime routine (although the first night she slept though aged 9 weeks I woke every hour) I had the full support of my health visitor who then was quite pro to the whole idea of co-sleeping which made me feel a whole lot happier about doing so.

 
When it came to Archie I was set once again that he wouldn't sleep in my bed, but breastfeeding at night meant it was just easier having him in my bed with me rather then having to take him in and out of the cot to feed him. As i said in my breast feeding post, I found it very painful for the first week or so and laying down on the bed was the only way I could feed him at first. He'd fall a sleep and having to move him back to his own bed would wake him up and I didn't see the the point in that. He's 8 months old now and still in my bed with me. I do of course plan to get him into his cot soon, I want to do that once I stop breast feeding which I am currently in the process of stopping.

Everything has changed now that attachment parenting has become more popular. These days if you search the internet (as I did before writing this blog post) you will find almost all co-sleeping information positive information about the subject. It talks about both sides to allow you to make your own mind up about where you stand about it, and over all it's a much more helpful and accepting view. I am not pro co-sleeping nor am I against it, I believe completely that as parents we have the right to choose what's best for our children without having to get into silly arguments about it all.