TRIED AND TESTED

We asked two moms to tell us which option worked for them

NATHALIE: COT SLEEPER

Since Nathalie Smith didn’t have the option of putting her baby in his own room, her first baby slept in the room with her for the first six months of his life until they moved into a bigger house. “A cot in our room was the only option. My husband refused to have Andrew in the bed with us, as he was terrified of rolling onto him and also wasn’t prepared to spend four months on the couch while I slept with our baby.”

She admits, though, that while it was convenient to have her baby so close to her, he was a restless, noisy little sleeper that often kept her and Andrew up (even when he wasn’t crying), and she found it a bit much being with him 24/7.

“By the time baby number two came around, we had moved into a bigger house, and both kids had their own rooms. My second son went into his nursery from day one, and not only did we sleep and feel better the next day, but the physical break from my baby also did wonders for my mental state. Having my own space in those early allconsuming days was fantastic.

I looked forward to seeing my baby in the morning and enjoyed my special time in the nursery feeding him at night.”

LAUREN: CO-SLEEPER

Lauren Allott, mom of four, never planned to co-sleep, but when she developed a spinal headache in the hospital after her epidural, it made sense for her to have her first baby girl in her bed with her, as she couldn’t lift her head up off the pillow.

“My friend had told me that he and his wife were co-sleeping because that’s how horses do it, and we’re mammals just like them – and I thought he was crazy. I thought it was the most dangerous thing to do. Little did I know I would land up doing it too, and it really worked for both me and my husband, Bryan,” she says.

As it turns out, Bryan is a very heavy sleeper, and he prefers to have his babies as close as possible where he can hear them. Lauren also found having her baby in her bed (right up until a few months before the next one came along) worked really well for them as a family. “It was easy to feed them lying down – a nurse first-time round showed me how to do a side-lying position safely in the hospital. And I found they slept better and never confused day and night.

“Moving them into their own bed in their own room, was never a problem either, and if they didn’t adjust to it right away, I would lie in their bed with them for a bit until they settled.” ●