Bed-sharing and my past sleep mistakes....

As the kids are preparing to go back to school, I have been contemplating Amelia's sleeping habits. This is the first time I have done bed-sharing with my babies.

When I had Harry, he slept in a bassinet in our room for the first 6 weeks or so, and then we moved him to his "nursery". He could settle himself to sleep OK, but I am ashamed to admit I did use CIO with him, because that was what I thought everyone else did. I hated every minute of it.

When Charlie was born, he slept in my room for the first 10 weeks, and then moved to the "nursery". He was an amazing sleeper, and required no help at all to settle, and when he woke in the night, even after 12 months...gasp!! I just feed him back to sleep. It took 7 minutes from getting up, to returning to bed.

When Matilda was born, I felt like a first timer again. She never slept more than 40-45 minutes and even though I knew this was a cycle for a baby, I panicked, and visited the dreaded "sleep school". After the first morning, when they sat with me and waited, while she cried and cried, I would sneak in and feed her back to sleep. To be honest, I only stayed because it was a little break from having three young children, and having to cook and clean etc. When we got home, she eventually started sleeping longer periods, and she is a great sleeper now.

After I had Matilda, I joined an online forum called "Joyous Birth". It is a large homebirth group who have a diverse, and wide-ranging base of knowledge. Women from all over the country, and expats from overseas, who have joined together to create a welcoming, friendly, and knowledge rich community. I found a group of women who had similar parenting philosophies as I did, although it took me a while to realise how difficult I had made it for myself early on.

When I found out I was having Amelia, I knew how I wanted to do it this time. I wanted her in my bed. Close to me, so I could respond to her needs as soon as she expressed them, and it has been brilliant. She is 7 months old, and it has been completely different from the others. She feeds to sleep, and she sleeps well at night. The only issue is that Mick has been moved into the spare room, and he is starting to get jack of it. I understand how he feels, the bed is crap. But I love sharing the bed with Amelia, and frankly I don't want to get up at night to feed her.

I have asked my Mum to bring my cot home next weekend, and I will set it up, but I feel very half-hearted about the whole thing. I know that she will be fine in the cot now, although I will have to figure out how to get her to sleep without nursing, or learning how to feed her to sleep, and then transfer her to the cot. The issue I have, is night-time. She still feeds anywhere from 2-5 times during the night, and I don't want to have to get up to do it when I can just roll over and feed her while I am still half asleep.

So, what to do?? I haven't quite figured it out yet!!!!