Breastfeeding symbol (Photo credit: Topinambour)
Okay, maybe there aren’t really THAT many reasons that I love to bedshare with our now 5 month old ninjababy ( Five months? How the heck did that happen?!) but when I open my eyes in the morning to see a huge gummy smile … well, my whole day starts off better. Here’s a few reasons I love it so much…
I’m lazy. Really, honestly and truly. I love my sleep. I breastfeed partly because I have no desire to get up at 2 am and stumble around my kitchen trying to make a bottle. In the spirit of laziness, we bedshare. Heck, I don’t even have to roll over to feed the baby, much less walk to a different room and get him out of a crib. When the baby is in the bed, and the food is only a head turn away…well, all of us sleep better, and my older kids thank me for not being sleep deprived and grumpy in the morning.
We believe it’s the anthropological norm. Yes, WE. Not only is TBA totally on board with bedsharing, he actually has me grab the ninjababy early some nights, well before he’s ready to wake up and bed fed. “From an anthropological point of view, bed-sharing is the norm and is for 90 per cent of the world’s population,” Young says. “It’s only Western industrialised societies that conceptualise separate sleeping as the norm and that’s really only in the last 200 years. Then you have to look at SIDS rates; in China, for example, they don’t have a word for SIDS in the language.” (Dr Jeanine Young, a spokeswoman for SIDS and Kids, and nursing director of research at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Brisbane) (By the way, those who are interested in studying societal differences in child-rearing might want to check out an Online Concordia masters in public health program.)
Ninjababy is adorable. Truly. From sleeping like a starfish and pushing his dad and I out of the bed, to waking up to pokes in the eye and “Da da DA!” at the top of his voice. Ninjababy learned to roll over while laying between us in an early morning dance party, and he’s totally practicing how to crawl while using his dad as the best practice mountain ever.
It helps keep my milk supply high. I’m committed to breastfeeding until the wee one weans himself, and on demand night nursing helps make up for some of the booby time that he might be missing during a busy day when grass is WAY more interesting than hanging out with mama on the couch.
Do you co-sleep or bedshare? Do you love it?
I am the Crunchy Pagan Parent! 
Mar 29, 2012 @ 21:55:05
It definitely weokrd for us. My eldest just didn’t settle in her moses basket so I gave up after a couple of weeks and hardly had a disturbed night after that as she fed without me waking. She had colic and hated sitting in her car seat/pram so I think it helped our relationship, it was good to snuggle up together after an evening of colic-ey stress. With my 2nd I didn’t even try to put her to sleep anywhere else. It meant we could travel anywhere without it disrupting our routine and I think it helped both of them to sleep for longer in the mornings, they’d wake briefly at around 5 and then go back to sleep, neither of them have ever woken up before 7.30 am. It’s not for everybody but it certainly weokrd for our family.ps My girls are now 10 and 7 and have been sleeping happily in their own beds for years. It’s not a bad habit that they’ll never get out of, it’s a way of giving them the security they need to become independent when they’re ready.