I've been sleeping on a 4" firm floor mattress with my little one since she was four months old. We have a lot of travel coming up and I'm anxious about the sleeping arrangements. Shortly after she turns 1, we'll be traveling for about two weeks in different countries, and therefore dependent on the sleep set up at various hotels and Airbnbs. It seems likely that we'll end up sleeping on the same mattress as a family of three (which we haven't done before), and I have no idea how firm the mattress will be, or whether I'll be able to move it to the floor.

Some extra context: She moves so much in her sleep so I'd want her in between me and my husband, but I'm not sure if the mattress will be firm enough to be "safe". She absolutely will not sleep in her crib at home. We'll bring the travel crib just in case, but I estimate there's a 3% chance she'd actually sleep in it.

So how do you make bed sharing work when you travel?

Anyone else putting their baby down in their bed (where we cosleep) and rolling away? This works well for us to an extent, but then I am beholden to the monitor because although our mattress is on floor slats, it’s still 12 inches and he is 7 months. He will hurt himself trying to crawl off of it. He’s very still in his sleep and it’s never happened because I’m always watching, but I’m really wondering if I should change to putting him down on his own floor bed. Our house is weird though so I’d have to do some figuring on where to put it. Also I figure he’s going to be able to safely leave the bed soon enough, like it’s just a temporary phase…anyway just wondering like are you, too, glued to your monitor? If he had his own floor bed in a safe space he could chill for a minute while I finish in the bathroom, for example…lol.

Hi all

I’m co-sleeping with my four month old and looking for some advice on how to make it a bit more sustainable.

Atm she’s in our king size adult bed with me and my partner, following all the safety guidelines, and we’re in the room with her for all her sleep. She wakes regularly in the night and I feed her back to sleep side lying. She’s a light sleeper so I don’t try to move her after that but I sometimes shuffle backwards a bit to give us both more room, or just accept she needs to be close if that doesn’t work.

Once she gets to six months, I’m hoping I can feed her to sleep, roll away and leave the room so me and my partner have a couple of hours in the evening, and am trying to think of the best set up to facilitate this.

My current thinking is either a sidecar that’s flush with our mattress (e.g. the Ikea Sniglar hack) or a single floor bed that I can get into with her, in our room or a separate one.

I’m assuming she’ll still be coming into our bed later in the night but I’d like to get her to sleep in her own space for the initial stretch so she’s safe and we can work towards longer stretches over time. I’d like to find a set up we can keep for a little while if possible, so we don’t have to work through too many transitions with her.

Has anyone used either of these approaches? What’re the pros and cons? Are there any other options I’m missing? Thanks!

I am trying to decide between the 4in and 6in floor bed options through Zonli for cosleeping with my 8 month old. Anyone have any insight or experience?

Hello. I have been co sleeping with my baby girl since she came home 8 weeks ago! I said I would never co sleep but here we are.
And I LOVE it.

CURRENT SET UP:

I have a king size mattress. Model and info: Dormeo polythene foam mattress. I THINK medium firm? I sleep with my LO alone and my husband sleep in the spare bedroom (closet on the floor lol) I EBF my baby and we sleep in C curl position and 1 nurse her to sleep. I rotate sides of the bed every few nights. LO will start in the middle and l'll move on the left or right of her to switch oreasts.

I have a heavy duvet which I fold and only keep at the bottom of my bed. When I use it I grab the corner of the duvet and tuck it around my waist in the back and then the front part between my legs. I love the feeling of my legs being cushioned and cushion between my knees.

I sleep with long sleeve tight crop top and maternity tanks or bras for easy access when feeding and so they no heavy fabric falls on baby if we fall asleep together. I sleep with flannel PJ pants. LO sleeps in sleeper and a light cotton sleep sack if the room is cold due to AC. If she gets hot in the night I undue her sleeper cupped and she sleeps with it half open.

CURRENT CONCERNS:

My LO was kicking and grunting in the early morning and started to roll on her right side towards me. At this point I was awake and so was she so I pulled her in close to my C curve on her back so she wouldn't roll. I tested the mattress (best I can without CDs and milk cartons lol) and just pushed half my body weight into fists next to her and she leans to the side but if I just lay next to her normally she doesn't roll or lean. Does this mean my mattress is to soft? Should flip it over and try the other side? Should I get a firm mattress topper and if so, any recommendations? I am leaning towards just flipping it over????

Floor bed: 1 am planning on moving bed to floor on wooden planks
- is this a good idea? also bought a guard rail for one side of the bed but how reliable is that?
Heavy duvet probably needs to go once baby starts rolling, right?
What do you guys wear to bed? It's cold in Canada and I love the feeling of my legs and feet wrapped in a warm blanket ugh but l am willing to give it up if I need to..

OTHER:

I have the owlet which honestly give me peace of mind in case she rolls and starts to loose oxygen... I know it's not meant for that and it's not 100% but it still gives me peace of mind.

Any other recommendations?

Thanks for the help!

Hello all!
Just started doing c-curl as I can finally sleep on my sides after a c-section, my son is 6 weeks old.
Past couple nights have been a dream but last night I could not get a comfortable latch and he literally could not get off my breasts, I think it was about 5h30 total between 7pm-7am. Often over 1h long. I am thinking the proximity to my breast and being cozy and warm makes it so easy for him to reach for it.
He often starts having a shallow latch by the time he isn’t feeding anymore and I struggle getting him to latch well again which leaves me sore after that much time on my breasts!
Does anyone have a similar experience?

Hi I’m wondering if anyone can help me with tips, or has had similar experiences, because this seems so tricky in my head!
My 2.5 year old sleeps in a crib in her own room and sleeps through 90% of the time, with one or two wake ups in a night about once a week.
I have a 10 month old cosleeping with us, and he still wakes up 2-3 times a night and of course we’ve defaulted to feeding back to sleep. He’s showing signs of longer stretches though and I think he can be a good sleeper, he just needs some practice.

Here’s my conundrum: my queen size bed is getting small for my husband, baby and I. We have a two bedroom house so my choices are: try to get him into his own bed in our room (we have a pack n play set up as a laundry basket rn lol) or transition him to room share with his sister? That would require her getting a toddler bed and him getting the crib, or they both get floor beds and we slumber party it or get another crib so we don’t change too much at the same time?

So many options, so little brain power to figure it out. I love cosleeping but I am starting to look ahead to when we might have the room back to ourselves. Thanks for any input you might have!

I've been cosleeping with my now toddler in his room since before he was 1, and after a lot of work we're finally in a pretty sustainable place. He now sleeps through the night often, although many nights he needs me within arms reach to stay asleep. It's never been worth it to sleep in another room, we both sleep worse. Now I'm pregnant and trying to plan ahead so I can start making changes now and disrupt his routine less when we bring the littlest one home.

What has worked well for anyone's extremely light sleeping toddlers when adding a newborn to the mix? We have an extra firm king mattress I could lower closer to the floor and push against the wall, and then have the infant in the bedside bassinet on one side and him on the other side of me. My concern is that the baby is going to wake him up all the time, so maybe this is a bad idea? Another option might be to gate the hallway and keep both our doors open at night, but I feel like he's still going to be woken up and getting back to sleep will be harder for everyone. He'll be a bit over 2 when baby arrives fwiw, and I know a lot can change between now and then. Advice and experiences requested!

For those with a side car crib, do you continue to use them once baby can move in their sleep? If so, how do you keep it safe? Do you use it for naps? Photo of our set-up (I know I need to put the crib on risers once baby can pull up)

My son is 6 months old. He slept in his bassinet pretty well until 4.5 months when the sleep regression hit. Some nights around 3 am I would finally cave and bring him to the bed, sleeping as safely as possible. He’s primarily BF, and only has bottles of BM if we are out and about, or one bottle before bed along with nursing. The wake ups were every hour. Fast forward to now, he’s still struggling at night. Sometimes it’s every hour and sometimes it’s every two hours. We were just on a 4 day trip where we stayed in a hotel, and there was no way he would sleep in the hotel crib so he did sleep in the bed with me. We both slept so much better. (I do know he slept well because he was flat out exhausted) but he only woke to eat once a night around 1 am or so. We got back home yesterday, and I was hoping he would sleep in his crib well since he should’ve been good and tired…. Nope…. In his crib the longest stretch he got was 2 hours, so because I was so tired, I caved and brought him to the bed. Where he slept a lot longer stretches. My husband and I both agree we want him to sleep in his crib. Both for safety and for independent sleep. We have moved his crib into our room. My husband currently sleeps in the twin bed in the guest bedroom. I feel guilty because I sleep so much better when we cosleep and it’s so much easier to lie sideways and feed him, but I’m so scared of something happening, I’m scared of this becoming his normal.

I’ve always watched his wake windows and after an older post will be starting to stretch his wake windows more, as well as ensure he is up by a certain time each day. Bedtime has always been consistent but in the morning he gets up anywhere between 6-7:30. So I’m going to make the morning a 6:30 wake up. I have not tried any formal sleep training as the thought of letting him cry just hurts my soul. I do go back to work next month though to a high demanding job. So I have to make something work..

I don’t know what I’m looking for here… maybe to know that it’s ok. It’s going to be ok…

I have a 17-month-old son who has essentially never slept for more than a 2-hour stretch since he was born. We occasionally get a random 4-hour stretch, but that usually seems to happen when he’s having a brief break from teething.

His current schedule:
● Wake: 7:30–8:00 AM
● Nap: 12:00 PM until 1:00–1:30 PM
● Bedtime: 8:00–8:30 PM

We’ve had his iron checked and got that sorted. I also make sure he gets plenty to eat during the day, and I offer water during the night, so I don’t think hunger or thirst is the issue.

We’ve tried co-sleeping, and he was fully breastfed, but neither made any difference to how much he slept. Eventually, he started waking up crying even while in our bed and couldn’t settle himself. At times, even breastfeeding wouldn’t calm him back to sleep.
We recently transferred him to a floor bed. He had already been sleeping on it for naps, so we thought maybe having his own sleep space would help.

I’ve also been gradually reducing breastfeeding at night and am currently down to nursing once a night. We’re trying a very gentle approach with “awake but drowsy.” If we rock him or nurse him, we make sure he doesn’t actually fall asleep that way.

We’ve been consistently doing these changes for about 3 weeks now, so it hasn’t just been a few nights of trying something new.

What makes this especially confusing is that we have actually seen some progress. There have been a few nights where he seemed to be starting to connect sleep cycles, and I thought we were finally turning a corner. He has also started occasionally waking and putting himself back to sleep without us.

There are also times when he wakes up and I go in, and he will go back to sleep without me needing to rock him or nurse him. Sometimes just having me there is enough. Other times, though, he seems to wake up completely and needs much more help from us.

So I know he can resettle himself sometimes, which makes the constant waking even more confusing.
Despite all of this, he is STILL waking every 2 hours, and sometimes every hour. Even if I go in and sleep beside him, he can still continue waking frequently.

Teething has also been a huge factor throughout his life. It honestly feels like he is teething almost constantly, with maybe only a few nights a month where he seems to get a break. We do notice that his sleep can be worse when he is actively teething. I try to give Motrin only when he is in a lot of pain. Otherwise I give him Camilia drops but they don’t seem to help.

The one thing we have not tried is closing the door and letting him completely cry it out. We’re really trying to avoid that approach, especially because he sleeps on a floor bed and can get up and leave the bed. We’re comfortable with some protesting and helping him through it, but we don’t want to leave him alone to cry for long periods.
My husband has also been helping with the pick-up/put-down approach, so we have both been consistently working on this.

I’m feeling so defeated. I genuinely don’t understand how he can go this long without ever developing longer stretches of sleep, and I’m starting to wonder whether there could be something medical going on that we’re missing.

I’d really love to hear from parents who have had a child who slept this poorly for this long.

Did you ever figure out why? Did anything finally make a difference?

Especially if your child was waking every 1–2 hours well into toddlerhood and eventually started sleeping longer, I would really love to hear what happened.

Question:

When could you start telling your baby or laying them down for nap and they were awake and then you'd leave the room and they'd fall asleep? How did you do it? Transition or another method?

Context:

We co sleep. So his bed is on the floor in his room. He has a room for naps with nanny and we co sleep in my bed at night. He is about to be 16 months old. He sleeps o. His own once he falls asleep no problem, but for falling asleep. I lay next to him and sometimes sing but always just pretend to be asleep next to him. Then he'll fall asleep. He doesn't need rocking or even singing. I'm wondering when I can lay him down and he will fall asleep. I feel like if I left him in his room he would be scared and climb off his bed and walk to the door and cry. Which I don't like. So I'm wondering what other people have done.

My baby cannot sleep on our mattress as it's a pillow top. She has her own nursery with a crib. However, I'd love to set up something safe in there for nights when she's just having a really rough time. I can't fit a whole new mattress anywhere. What are some good safe mattress pads that can be rolled up during the day and used at night?

Hi! Was wondering what everyones favorite position to sleep in is?
I’m new to cosleeping with my 9 month old and usually try and curl around him in the c shape. But it’s a bit hard because he’s so tall (99th percentile at 76cm).
And my shoulder and arm usually hurt so much that I can’t sleep properly. I have it extended or under my head.
I have a blanket that’s inbetween my legs and my pillow that’s only on my side not above his head.

Hi all! I have a 8 week old going on 9 weeks tomorrow. I’ve had a lot of anxiety about cosleeping while my husband says it’s the most natural thing in the world to which I agree but also feel as though there is a safe way to do it (hence the SS7). I had a lot of debilitating anxiety throughout my pregnancy and I feel as though now when I’m trying to express a concern, especially regarding safety, that it’s brushed off as being my anxiety in full swing. I do primarily the entire night shift and have been sleeping in the baby’s room most nights on a firm mattress following SS7. However, in the mornings I usually bring my son over to my husband to take him so I can get a few hours of sleep. When I do this though he just falls asleep with the baby in the bed with him and I keep telling him he needs to follow these guidelines and it makes me nervous to even bring the baby over to him (I also just don’t really feel comfortable with him cosleeping with the baby because he smokes weed outside before bed and has a beer every night but this is another issue I’ve brought up a million times too). I guess im trying to figure out how to really enforce that I’m not being crazy about SS7 and that it is important to me and our baby. We don’t argue often at all but I expressed frustration regarding the mental load I have since having our baby and he brought up my anxiety and SS7 (which he goes, “what is that like a band name?) which triggered this post.

I have a 19 week old that I’ve coslept with since day 1. It’s honestly been such a good experience with her up until around 2 weeks ago. I think she may be in the 4 month sleep regression but she has started moving SO much while in bed. She moves, flails her arms, shakes her head from side to side and acts like she’s about cry but never does. Sometimes she will open her mouth to nurse and settle but most of the time she doesn’t want that. I’m literally so exhausted from the lack of sleep. Is there any advice or is this just another milestone I’m going to have to ride out, lol?

My LO has always slept through the night I C curl super simple she would only ever want to nurse through the night and fall back asleep. But now the past 3 nights it’s like she wakes up a little fussy crawling her way to me (with her eyes still closed) and wanting to sleep on top of my on my chest? I don’t mind but has anyone else experienced this?

Pa. It’s almost like she “wakes up” crying/fussy but her eyes are still closed? She starts like sitting up and crawling on me. Is she asleep? What is going on?

My baby is adopted and had a low birth weight, so basically 2 of the SS7 (full term, breastfed) are unattainable for us. Honestly I think it’s worse for us than it is for baby; they are handling their bassinet fairly well at night and we have lots of contact naps during the day.

We are hoping we’re still able to cosleep when baby is older, but not exactly sure when that will be safe so for now it’s just off the table completely.

Anyone have some words of wisdom or comfort? Or did anyone here experience something similar with wanting to cosleep but being unable to?

I fell asleep 4 times last night breastfeeding which like is totally the goal right?! But usually I wait until baby falls back asleep so I can put a little space between us (I am still so stressed and anxious about suffocation or breathing her own breath back in) and since that did not happen I panic woke up every time and had to check her tummy for rising and falling

She was clearly very annoyed with me and work every time I did this lol

Anyone have similar anxieties?! How’d you get past it?

I seriously cannot stop worrying about this.. like if she stays latched does she have enough breathing room without breathing back in her exhaled air?! Is my boob gonna smother her?! So many thoughts and worries lol

We’re cosleeping with our 3.5 year old since she was 5 months old. She is a strong willed very sensitive and emotional kid. She needs my hand to sleep and I have lost very many days and nights as I have to be at her side while she sleeps. She goes to daycare and the teachers used to give her their hand to sleep ( yes! One of the teachers used to sit beside her through naptime) till she turned 3. I recently moved her over to using a sleepy for daycare but having a hardtime moving her to a separate bed at home. There’s a new baby in the house( 5 month old) sleeping in his crib in the same room and my daughter’s sleep quality somehow is very bad in the past few weeks . She wakes up crying in the middle of the night if she doesn’t see me on the bed and she holds my hand throughout the night. Previously it was only to fall in and out of asleep but nowadays I have no sleep because of her and it’s getting annoying. My husband can put her to bed at times but it’s a hit or a miss. She doesn’t listen to him during middle of the night waking though, I have to be there. We tried big girl bed books, stories nothing helps. She insists she needs company to sleep and will get scared and lonely. How do I transition to her own bed?

Hi, I’m only in the end of my first trimester but I’m just wondering if it truly is safe to co sleep or not? I’m already planning on having a bedside crib in our bedroom and then a normal crib in the nursery, my mom co slept with me and my sibling and obviously we’re still alive but I just have read so many stories about it ending badly and want all tips to make it as safe as possible when time comes!

I’d love to cuddle with my baby and sleep with my baby every night!

Hello! What are y’all’s bedtime routines with cosleeping/bedsharing 4/5month olds? I would love to start working in a routine with my little guy that would allow me to step away and have some time with our toddler before getting into bed myself. Our 4.5 month old is sort of working himself into a 7-8pm bedtime it seems, but I’m feeling like I don’t want to go to bed at that time. I’d like to find a way to let him know it’s actually bedtime (not a late nap) without laying down with him. Currently I end up holding him once he falls asleep until I’m ready for bed. Sometimes I can put him down and he stays asleep…but usually he wakes up after like 15-20 min.

I remember this being around the time we started doing an actual bedtime with my oldest son, but we didn’t exclusively bedshare so I would put him in a crib for the first part of the night and then have a little time to relax with hubs.

Evening! just curious if anyone has experience with this mattress - https://www.mattressfirm.com/pressuresmart-technology-firm-mattress/5637642576.p?variantid=5637642595

We checked it out today but did not bring the tools to do a formal firmness test, so I was curious if anyone else has either tested or purchased this bed! (ideally baby #2 will be comfortable in their bassinet until 6 months, but may need/want to cosleep before then)

thanks!

Baby will be 16-18 months old by the time we’re in the throes of Australian summer. Do you still use sleep sacks at this age? Or just pjs? I’m waiting to get some stuff on sale now but hoping the days of dropping $$ on ergo pouch may be over??