Ok, this might be a totally silly question, but I just realized this last night and I'm not sure what the answer is!
I'm all about attachment parenting and I plan to co-sleep and EBF. It occurred to me that the typical idea of breastfeeding in a rocking chair may not be necessary if I'm not putting the baby to sleep in a crib afterwards, as he or she can just breastfeed in bed with me. But is a rocking chair still helpful as a location to breastfeed more easily during the day (as opposed to just sitting on the couch) or is it one of those "necessary" things that I'll never use? I don't want to spend the money on it if it won't be helpful, and will just take up space. TIA!
Re: Rocking chair?
I love my glider, but take my advice with a grain of salt since we never bedshared.
I use it for nursing - not just before bed, but ever since my kid hit the 4-month-wakeful. I needed to go somewhere quiet and dark to nurse him and keep him focused. Going in his room away from stimuli was the answer.
DH uses it for storytime. DH is in charge of almost all of bedtime. He does the bath, pajamas, and story. They sit together in the glider and read. Then I come in and do a little nursing before bedtime.
It worked great for our nap routine. For the longest time my son needed to be rocked for naps, so this is where we did it. DH still uses it for cuddling if my guy isn't interested in nursing before bed.
My son also loves to sit in it and rock himself. Just this morning I was thinking about how great our glider is because I was looking at pictures of him from this weekend when he demanded help up into the glider, then he wanted blankets, then he wanted his toys, then he wanted his old birthday hat.
Breastfeeding Counselor with Breastfeeding USA
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This. We bought a "lady" sized lazyboy rocker recliner from craigslist and that was (and still is) our favorite chair. I liked that I could flip the footrest part up and bend my knees in a way that I didn't need a boppy either (DS was a big baby) and the armrests were low enough to support my arms while feeding. We had some issues in the beginning that made for 45+ minute feeding sessions every 2.5 hours so I spent a LOT of time in that chair. I think it made a big difference.
We bought a regular rocker/recliner because we wanted something that we could use in the living room, and a glider looks very "nursery" to me.
We hadn't originally intended to bedshare, and set up a nursery with crib/dressers but the room is quite small so there really wasn't space for a glider in their anyway. But the bassinet turned into bedsharing so I think a glider would've been a waste for us. Some people really like them though.
You could also wait and see, if you feel like you really want one after LO arrives you can always buy one then.