Babies: 9 - 12 Months

Does anyone have a "family bed"?

I know this is really controversial, but I'm wondering if anyone does this? Sometimes I bring my LO into bed with us when he's having a bad night (usually he STTN in his own crib), and I actually really like having the 3 of us all snuggled together. I kind of wish we had done this back during his early months when his sleeping was so bad and it was driving me crazy. Most people are so down on this though. I guess because it's a hard habit to break for the child? Are you worried about how to transition him to his own bed in the future?
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Re: Does anyone have a "family bed"?

  • Sometimes bringing your baby to bed is not the same as a practice of cosleeping, IMO.

    We also bring DS to bed with us when he has a bad night.  Meh, it will all work out.
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    DS1 born June 2008 | m/c at 9w March 2011 | DS2 born April 2012
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  • imagevanillacourage:
    Sometimes bringing your baby to bed is not the same as a practice of cosleeping, IMO.

    We also bring DS to bed with us when he has a bad night.  Meh, it will all work out.
  • Ditto vanilla. If I have to out of necessity I will, but it is OUR bed, not hers. And no we don't have a family bed and we never will.
  • We have a family bed.  We don't even own a crib anymore.  We gave it away when ds was a baby because we never used it.
  • DD has slept in our bed since we brought her home from the hospital.  It's worked very well for us, since she doesn't sleep through the night & I beastfeed.  My pedi isn't supportive of co-sleeping, but didn't give me a hard time about it either. 

    I'm not too worried about transitioning DD to her own bed in the furture.  It will happen when we are all ready.

  • We were totally against the idea before DS was born but he has slept every night with us in our bed.  I asked DH if he wanted to start transitioning him into the crib and he said no - he likes having him so close and DS sleeps much better.  So we're all happy with the situation.  We have no plans yet.  if we continue I'm not worried about his future sleeping, everything i've read says they'll let you know when they're ready for their own bed.
  • I don't consider it a family bed, but we cosleep more than not. Colin hated sleeping alone from the minute he came home from the hospital. I also BF, so it was much easier. We transferred him to his crib at 8 weeks, but that was a big FAIL. So we moved him back to our bed. Now he sleeps in his crib half the night (he literally JUST started be OK with this), then wakes to nurse and I bring him in our bed (he nurses 2 times a night usually). Sometimes, like last night, he didn't feel well (belly ache), so he slept in our bed the whole night. My ILs are VERY against it. But they also told me to let him CIO at 4 weeks old. On the other hand, I slept with my parents until I was 6. LOL. I used to be against it before he was born, but I love it now. We snuggle and I love waking up to his smiling face. :)
  • We co-sleep with DD and wouldn't have it any other way. ?I'm not worried about having to transition her at some point.
  • We have had a family bed since DD was 7 months old.  I really wanted one from the beginning but DH was terrified of SIDS. At 7 months, DD had surgery on her foot and required a cast for a month.  I seized the moment to comfort her all night long by letting her in our bed.  DH ended up really loving it.  He works 12-14 hour days and so he loves to chance to reconnect with her at night.  Another thing we love about it is that DD still isn't sleeping through the night.  We put a cooler near our bed with her bottles in it and when she wakes we just hand her a bottle and she feeds herself.  We find that with a family bed everyone gets more sleep and everyone loves the extra cuddle time.  We get the negative comments, but as with parenthood, everyone will have an opinion about how you should raise your child, but in the end you have to decide what's best for your baby. 
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  • imagelanie26:
    Ditto vanilla. If I have to out of necessity I will, but it is OUR bed, not hers. And no we don't have a family bed and we never will.

    ditto. DS has slept in his crib since two weeks of age. It's what works for us. 

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