Co sleeping siblings

When hubby and I came home from the hospital (I just got a shiver saying that, lol) with our first babe we had a cot next to the bed in our little room.

He fed for an hour, every 3 hours for the first few weeks. This meant I would get about an hour and a half sleep every 3 hours. The hospital, the Maternal nurse, family and friends all gave us their bits of advice with sleeping. Bubs need to be in the cot swaddled and patted off to sleep if they are 'unsettled' This was a nightmare. Bubs would get upset, I was sleep deprived and upset and of course hubby would come home and be upset as we were upset!

I kept doing it as 'that's what you are supposed to do' we struggled through until he started to sleep through every night, for about 6-7 hours at around 2 months.

Before our next babe was born we had already decided I would do what my heart wanted to do and felt was right by me and our new babe.

I would fed him in our bed and most times we would fall asleep together. We still had the cot and I would put him in there for naps and sometimes overnight too.

Fast forward 3 more children and we are getting more sleep and our family is much happier!

I feel sad that no one mentioned having our first babe in bed with us, and also sad that I didn't listen to my heart and just do what I and our babe clearly (now in hindsight) wanted and needed.

While other people can be great with helping and offering advice, as parents we need to be strong and do what is best for our baby and ourselves. We are the ones caring for our babe 24/7, we are the ones up at all hours, feeding, holding close, changing and the myriad of other things we try to do in the day and night.

Pinky McKay talks about the benefits to both mother and baby through co sleeping.

Babies have been inside our bodies for 9 loud months. When they are born they still need to be close to us, to our chest, warm and safe, with breast milk ready whenever they need.

Co sleeping in our family changes every night. It might be hubby, myself and bub, or our 2 year old snuggled with Daddy as well, and on the odd occasion I will wake in the morning to find our 4 year old sleeping cross ways at the bottom of the bed :)

Here are a few pics of our happy, co sleeping family.

In this I was next to bubby, and Dadda was next to our blondie 2 year old. We end up like this most nights, I love it.

Not sure what hubby will say about he last pic, but, meh, it is a beautiful picture and it's going in! I love his hand on our week old bubby. Even Dadda's and partners are in tune with babies and children when co sleeping.