3 week old sleeping on my chest

[SoupDragon]

DD comes in with us about halfway through the night...after her feed she sleeps on my chest, then I turn onto my side still holding her, so she's cuddled into the crook of my arm. She goes on either side - either between me and DH or between me and the co-sleeping crib. I prefer to have her next to the crib, as then I don't have a big gap of duvet making me cold! I make sure the duvet only comes up to just above my waist, and she is in a grobag on top of the covers anyway. Because her head is on my arm, she's not near the pillows, and I can see her face and feel her breathing. She sleeps amazingly well like this, and I am learning to sleep a bit better now, though I was afraid to fall asleep like that at first.

This is exactly what we did last time around. However, it's not considered safe to have the baby sleep in between two sleeping adults. The safest place for a co-sleeping baby is between mum and the edge of the bed (which should have some sort if bed rail). I used to roll DD1 from one side to the other without either of us waking. I'm therefore being careful t keep DD2 on my side so I don't get in the habit of rolling her. I want her in the safest possible position, particularly as DD1 occasionally comes into our bed in the early hours. DD1 always sleeps in the middle, so I need to keep DD2 away.

Oh, I didn't know that, I've read in a few places that it's ok so they don't fall out. However, I do prefer to have her on my other side, next to the co-sleeping crib, and she does go there most nights rather than between us, so I'll make sure I do that always from now on

 

[Cangaroo]

Most guidelines I've seen say not to place baby between parents, such as Dr Sears: https://www.askdrsears.com/topics/health-concerns/sleep-problems/sleep-safety/cosleeping-safely. There are so many guidelines out there it's hard to know what to follow!

 

[Bunnikins]

The way i stopped my baby from sleeping on my chest was i started to use a special cellular type blanket to wrap her in when she was asleep.. then i tried laying her in her moses basket on her tummy rather than her back, with the blanket on. The first time i did this she slept a decent 3-4 hour stretch for the first time ever. I think her issue was she wanted to sleep on her tummy and thats why she slept so well on my chest and wouldnt sleep anywhere else... cos everywhere else involved sleeping on her back. I know tummy sleeping also isnt safe but it was the lesser of two evils and i got a breathing monitor so i felt a bit better. She still sleeps on her tummy now aged 8 months

 

[sue_88]

Have you heard of a Cuski Swandoodle? It's a giant muslin basically. I used to tie that round me and over LO when my LO was tiny to keep her in place. Its nice and thin so no overheating. A pashmina would perhaps do the same job?

 

[catty]

Mrspear how did I manage to miss that you were pregnant! Congrats

 

[twobecome3]

Mrspear how did I manage to miss that you were pregnant! Congrats

I was thinking the same thing randomly last night!


congrats!

 

[MrsPear]

Haha I think i had a fairly easy pregnancy until the end when I had a slow leak in my waters and didn't know so he got an infection... So I didn't post that much about it on here.

Things have improved slightly - he did 2 hours in his basket last night and about the same next to me, and some of the rest of the night he was simply awake rather than sleeping on my chest. So I feel a bit more reassured he will do it eventually.

Otherwise, I am just trying to make it as safe as possible. I do think i wake up very easily with him there. And he feels so warm and soft... If it wasn't supposed to be dangerous i think i'd be loving it!

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