Our Co-Sleeping Story

My son came into the world quietly at 12:58 in the morning, or the middle of the night.  He was perfect.  He went straight to my breast and had a great latch.  We did skin to skin for hours. Considering the late hour and long labor, of course we fell asleep.  We dozed off and on that way for the next day; my arms wrapped around him protectively, breathing in his perfect baby scent.  He was just shy of 10 pounds. He was the biggest baby born in the hospital that day. 

On the second day, they said his beautiful dark complexion was actually jaundice. My husband and I both have olive skin tones so we didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.  They brought in a light to go over his bassinet and a bilirubin blanket. Then, to my horror, they wrapped his head with what they called “baby sunglasses” for protection.  He screamed and cried. The only way to quiet him was nursing.  My husband, in a moment of genius, positioned the light over both of us as I held our perfect son. I held him wrapped in the blanket and the awful sunglasses and we both “got a tan” as the nurses said.  My husband and I took turns sleeping with the baby in our arms.

When we finally got home, Noah spent two days sleeping in the bassinet at night.  Then my husband went back to work. At the time, he worked third shift, so I was on my own all night with our new infant.  It just made sense to keep him beside me in the bed. It was so much easier to just pop out a boob and feed him while we both rested.  I read up on safe co-sleeping and we adjusted our room to accommodate it.  On the weekends, when my husband was home, we still used the bassinet.

All too quickly, my 10 pound infant became a 16 pound infant at two months old.  The bassinet had a weight limit of 15 pounds. I wasn’t ready to move him to the crib in the next room. He was still so new and tiny that I couldn’t bear the thought. On top of that, I wasn’t a big fan of having to walk down the hall several times a night.  That’s when we decided that we weren’t going to use the crib. Ever. 

My husband took it apart and put it in storage. That’s how we became a co-sleeping family.  It just works for us.  The best part?  Waking up to that adorable little boy next to me each morning!

A lot of people told me that it was a mistake to continue co-sleeping.  They told me that he wouldn’t sleep through the night. He did. He was sleeping through the night by the time he was six months old. Other people told me he would never want to sleep by himself. They were also wrong. At 18 months he started wanting his own space. He didn’t want anyone touching him at night and he began pushing us out of the bed, or attempting to. Our solution was to put his unused crib mattress on the floor next to our bed (which is also on the floor for safety). At age two, he was ready. We got him his own bed and made a big deal out of choosing dinosaur sheets. We stayed with him until he fell asleep the first few nights. Now he sleeps all night in his own bed just a month after turning two. So those people that said he’d still be in our bed at sixteen, they were wrong too. 

I’m not saying co-sleeping is the best solution for everyone. For us, it was the best decision. We have loved cosleeping with our son and it has worked perfectly for our family. We didn’t choose to co-sleep because we are hippies or attachment parents, not that there is anything wrong with either. In the end, I’m glad that we did what works best for our family because we trusted our intuition as parents. That was the best decision of all!

Written by: Sara Parise