Co-Sleeping with Toddler and NB

[PurpleRina]

Ok, I'm SURE that there are probably threads on this already on here. But I am looking for some current discussion and well....am just feeling a bit lazy to comb the archives.

My DD will be 3 y/o at the end of February. She has recently resumed coming to our bed as early as midnight. She is welcome with us and has become very good about sleeping on "her" pillow on "her" part of the bed. Never used to ask her to do that, but being 9 months pregnant, I needed some minimal boundaries to keep me comfortable.

I have no doubt that our new babe will also end up in bed with us. I'm no good at sitting up to nurse that then putting babe back in their own bed....If I can just bring her to bed and sleep, why not?

So, our set-up in a king mattress on the floor. DH on one side, me in the middle and DD on the other side. Right now, I'm really most comfortable on my left side, which puts me facing DD. Who has co-sleep with an itty bitty and a bigger one? How did you safely accomplish this? TIA!!!!

[MamaWillow]

I would move DD to your other side, so LO can be on your left and is away from everyone else. I sleep with DS (3) on my right and DD on my left. When she was brand new, I didn't move her to my other side at all, I just leaned over so she could nurse the "upper" breast. Now that she is 7mo I feel safer having her next to DS at times, so I switch her back and forth through the night. I would be nervous having a newb right next to a toddler....it's too easy for the newb to get bonked by a flailing arm or knee.

[kateroc]

I just posted a question about this a couple days ago! I ended up doing what mamawillow suggested -- our set up is DH, DS1(2.5yrs), me and DS2 (4 mos). I keep DS2 on the same side all night, so I am always a buffer between the two boys. I figured out that I'm able to nurse both boobs without changing sides (that was a total revelation to me!). The only downside is that it's not super comfortable to sleep on only one side all night, but it's better than getting up and going into the baby's room all night.

[keowilliams]

We sleep with DH on one side, our 3 year old in the middle, then me, and the baby on my other side. To handle nursing: I nurse him off my left side from roughly 12-5 (last nip as he goes to sleep, and usually once in the middle of the night) then sit up and feed him off the right in the early morning. After that, I commonly put him in the bouncer for the last couple hours. Now that he's a bit older, we're planning on getting a bed rail in the next week or two so that we don't have to worry about him rolling off the bed.

[sisu]

DD sleeps with us, DS is in his own room but will come and sleep with us for a few hours if he wakes up really early. When we go to bed, I nurse DD in between DH and I. When she's done nursing, I roll over so that she's on the outside of the bed, and my back is to DH. If she nurses at all at night, she nurses from that side.

When DS comes into bed with us, he's either between DH and I, or on the other side of DH so that there's no chance that he can hurt the baby in any way. It would never work for us if we had a smaller bed, but we have a King also, and it gives us plenty of room.

[xO_mommaK_Ox]

My DS is 17mo he sleeps in the middle of DH and I in our QUEEN size!! DDis now 3 weeks and she starts in the bassinet but alway ends up in our bed so I will be sandwiched between get and DS with her on the outside. She can't roll or anything yet so I'm not worried about her falling off. DS never slept in his crib and is deathly afraid of it but I think once we get him his toddler bed we will get our bed back.

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[KandFsMomma]

when I was pregnant with DS, DD was in our King. She was 3ish, and I just couldn't take it any more and moved her to her own mattress, close to our bed (My DH is a really big guy, and takes up quite a bit of a king, and DD is a snuggly kicky little thing). She would get in our bed at like 3 am, but I was so uncomfortable and just needed my space. We tried putting her in her own room, but she just wasn't ready, so we got her a nice twin mattress and pushed it up against our bed. She has her own blankets, but she is right there. DS who is now almost 9 months generally sleeps on the "edge" our bed, but this way he can't fall off, he would just end up on his sister.

[PurpleRina]

Thanks for all of the ideas! I've been thinking about adding one more mattress to the mix, but really would like to stick to what we have....I LOVE having DD with us and she is welcome there, but she has of her own will been sleeping in her own bed all night until very recently. I think that much of this is anxiety about baby coming. I'll have to think about getting her used to sleep between us. She's been kicky when next to Daddy in the past. May be the blanket situation. We keep the night temp at 65F and she still doesn't want any blankets....if we went to individual blankets instead of big ones over the whole bed..... hmmmmm.... Also may need to keep it warmer at night anyway to keep heavy blankets off the bed if there is a newb in there!

[blueone]

I think I may be doing something similar. DS is in his own bed, but with pregnancy I usually end up bringing him in bed with us if he doesn't fall back to sleep with just a pat. The idea of getting up multiple times due to a new LO and the possibility of DS not stn by then and leading me to have to get up for him is so unappealing. I'll have to do the positioning suggested!

[trying4more]

We are putting our king mattress on the floor.
DS will sleep on the edge next to DH, then baby will rotate from my left side to my right side.
DH sleeps in the SAME position ALL NIGHT, so I'm not worried AT ALL about him rolling onto the baby!