Co-Sleeping Positions

[pixxi]

Hello everyone,

I'm tentatively co-sleeping with my new little one - tentative because I'm not sure I'm doing it right. I've read all the safety guidelines and know about keeping pillows/covers away etc but I'd love to see some visual examples of safe sleeping positions, how to feed lying down etc and I can't find much at all like this online. Can anyone point me to any resources like this?

We have two current issues:

- I get stiff lying so rigidly in the same position all night
- When I feed lying down I can't seem to find a position that avoids my baby's nose getting squished against the top of my boob

Also, is it normal to manoeuvre baby from lying on one side to side to the other when feeding? I've been feeding from just one boob while lying down, and then sitting up to 'properly' feed from the other once a night, as moving baby over each time seems to kind of defeat the idea of relaxed mid-sleep feeding. Should baby's head be on my arm or on the bed? So many questions!

Would be super grateful for any advice you can offer!

 

[misspriss]

Well with my first I stayed in the same positional all night wrapped around him. With this one, I simply can't. With my first, we had a pillow top mattress (not ideal for cosleeping). We bought a flat, firmer mattress (also bigger) with anticipation of cosleeping with this one (and still with DS). I cannot lie in the same position or I get sore. So I move around, but I am always aware of where DD is, DS could be anywhere though...(he's 2.5)

I generally feed her from the bottom boob when lying on my side, which means always the same one. I have the advantage that my older child lies on the other side and also nurses, so he gets the other side. Actually usually both, but I make sure he gets the other side first. That and she STTN (has from about 2 weeks) so it's really just nursing when we lie down and in the AM.

The boob nose squish is an issue I had as well, it's quite common with larger breasts and small baby. They just grow out of it. I had to use my hand to hold my breast tissue away from her nose for the first couple of months, now it's fine.

When we go to bed, I lie down with my body facing baby, with her on her side, head at breast level and we nurse. After she falls asleep I usually shift to my stomach next to her. I use the arm closest to her to ensure the pillow does not get near her, and only pull the covers up waist high (about feet level for her). I only roll over the opposite direction if I need to nurse my older child, who does not yet STTN! lol

 

[pixxi]

Thanks for your reply, that's pretty much the same position that I'm using at the moment and it's reassuring that the nose squish is common, I thought I was doing something wrong! My little man is pretty teeny though so that explains it. Just means I'll have to be a bit more alert while he's feeding.

 

[HopefulEm]

I was worried about the nose squish thing at first but as one of the midwives pointed out to me, there's usually a little gap under their nose where they can still breathe.

When DD was little, I lay on my side nursing her to sleep, her head flat on the mattress. I would get sore on one side though, and also to keep the nursing even, I would often crawl over her in the night and switch what side I was laying on.