My first “mommy” blog post!
For whatever reason, in our culture, cosleeping (or sleepsharing, or the family bed, whatever you wish to call it) is seen as weird, fringe, and unsafe. Just like there is a safe way for your baby to sleep alone, there is a safe way for your baby to sleep with you. First of all, you should NEVER EVER EVER sleep in the same bed as your baby if you are under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or medications. Secondly, you need to have guardrails on your bed to ensure your baby doesn’t roll out of bed. Your baby should be dressed lightly as to not overheat. Adult bodies produce a lot of heat, so your baby will be very warm snuggled next to you.
The benefits of bedding with your baby are numerous.
- Babies sleep better! ~ Well, of course they do! Babies have spent 9 months inside their mommies, of course they want to be near them when they feel least secure. Also, according to the Dr. Sears’ Baby Sleep Book, babies enter REM sleep first, unlike older children and adults, who enter REM sleep later in our sleep cycles. Because REM sleep is a lighter state of sleep, babies are easily roused when they first fall asleep. Thus why when you go to put your baby in the crib they immediately wake up! Also, for babies, waking up alone is very frightening. Waking up next to a loving caregiver makes baby feel secure, safe, and reassured.
- Mommies sleep better! ~ I don’t know about you, but the thought of putting my little baby in a whole other room was too much for me to handle. I wanted him where I could see, smell, and touch him at all times. Not much has changed in the past 7 months, although he does nap in the crib now in the mornings, and I take a nap with him in the afternoons. Also, many studies have shown that when mommies and babies sleep together, their sleep cycles sync up! They wake up when baby does to nurse or be comforted, and fall back asleep relatively easily when baby falls back asleep. Also, since your baby is right next to you, satisfying your baby’s needs is easier, and therefore, you don’t need to get as riled up as you would if you had to run into another room, go make a bottle, warm the bottle, and get it back to a very awake baby.
- Breastfeeding is easier! ~ I can attest to this wholeheartedly. Most nights I don’t even remember if Sawyer ate in the middle of the night. I literally have to feel my girls in the morning to see which one is empty! Sometimes, I will even wake up and he has latched himself on and I didn’t even know it! I sleep well, he sleeps well, and has a nice full tummy. These extra feedings help babies thrive. Hind milk is mind milk, and since night nursers tend to nurse well into their sleep, they get more of this high fat, brain boosting juice.
- It helps babies thrive! ~ The extra touch in combination with the added nighttime nursing many cosleeping babies get is most likely the reason bedsharing babes tend to thrive. According to Dr. Sears, “Sleep sharing as therapy for failure to thrive infants was known over a century ago, as evidence from this quote from a childcare book written in 1840: ‘There can scarcely be a doubt that at least during the first four weeks and during winter and early spring, a child will thrive better if allowed to sleep beside its mother and cherished by her warmth than if placed in a separate bed.” Need I say more? (Dr. Sears, The Attachment Parenting Book, pg 94).
- It promotes trust and security between parents and babies! ~ Being close enough to your baby to meet all of his/her needs immediately shows your baby that you care and that you can be trusted to be there when he/she needs you. This trust will then extend to other areas of your baby’s personality, such as leaving your baby with sitters or putting your baby in new situations.
That’s all for tonight, folks. I made a killer breakfast of bacon, sunnyside up eggs (actually, Kevin made those, they are his specialty!), and then I cooked some Peruvian Purple Potatoes in the rendered bacon fat. DELICIOUS! Then, this Hipster Homemaker and her boys spent the whole day outside having a great time.
Nothing sexier than a man who is a wonderful daddy. 
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