Bassinet

[SpringCrane]

I'm looking for some practical advice on using a bassinet. I co-slept with my first, but I'd like this little guy to be comfortable in his own sleeping space outside our bed, but in our room.

I guess I struggle with figuring out which whimpers are early "I'm hungry" signs and which are "I'll settle back to sleep with a little time." Do you just ignore baby until he is legitimately crying and upset? I wake with every sound he makes, so I don't get any sleep (newborns are noisy!). When he's sleeping next to me he sleeps soundly and I wake to his early feeding cues.

Co-sleeping makes my husband nervous and we also have only so much space in the bed. I sleep better with baby right next to me, because baby sleeps better, but I do often end up sleeping at a weird angle hurting my neck or shoulders.

So how does one put baby to sleep in a bassinet in these early days? Nurse baby to sleep, put him down... And if he wakes? I'm BFing, and he's struggling to stay awake for a full nursing session so his meals are sometimes every 3 hours and sometimes clustered.

I did just get an in bed co-sleeper to test out tonight, but I would like to get baby sleeping in his bassinet.

Baby is 4 days old. I'm pro co-sleeping, pro crib-sleeping, pro whatever-works-for-you, but I'm specifically looking for advice on getting baby sleeping in his own space (and getting some sleep myself). I know some recommend the Arm's Reach co-sleeper, but I don't plan to get one.

Thanks for any insight. I realize it might seem like a stupid question!

 

[jessmke]

I had DD in a bassinet right next to our bed for the first three months. I kept a rock salt lamp on at night that casts a dim, amber light in the room, so I could see her in her bassinet but it wasn't a harsh light that would keep her awake. When she would wake at night I would look in on her, if she was just squirming around with her eyes closed I would wait and see what happened. If she didn't settle in a few minutes I would feed her. I would also keep an eye on the clock, if she woke 30 min after I just fed her then I would wait a bit longer for her to settle, or I would pick her up and give her a cuddle instead of feeding her. If that didn't help then I figured she was in the mood for a cluster feed and I would feed her, although she really didn't cluster feed very much. I was lucky because DD was a rockstar sleeper until she was 12 weeks old, she only every really woke up to eat (2-3 times per night from newborn) so I usually always just fed her when she woke. I never waited until she was full on crying, that just made it harder to get her to feed and to get her back to sleep.

At 3 months we started putting her in the crib in her own room, but we also have a bed in there so I've been sleeping in her room. She has been a crappy sleeper the last few weeks, sometimes waking 6 times at night (I think we hit the 4 month sleep regression early). Now when she wakes I put her pacifier back in her mouth to see if she will fall back asleep. If she continually spits the pacifier out while trying to fall back asleep then I know she is hungry and I feed her. If she settles with the pacifier then I leave her. I also have the salt rock lamp in her room now so I can see her in her crib.