Just Nicky

There are no stupid questions October 31, 2006

I just noticed the following from Kristen on my post about Attachment Parenting:

*asks possibly very stupid question*
did you ever fear rolling onto Finn during the night?
more so when he was a baby?
*hopes question is not too stupid*
Posted by kristen at October 30, 2006 1:24 PM

Firstly, it’s not a stupid question. The danger of rolling onto the baby is one of the first things people mention when you admit to co-sleeping.

Secondly, no we didn’t really worry about it - well, maybe Mark worried a little, but he says that he worries about everything. When you have a baby in bed with you you’re very aware of his/her presence, though, and it’s unlikely you’d roll on them unless you were too drunk or stoned to know better.

We were more concerned about Finn being suffocated if he got stuck under the doona or against one of the pillows so we had him sleeping on top of the doona between us. He was more on the bed than in it. It worked pretty well, although I wouldn’t say it was ideal.

For Leila I think we might try positioning her up high on the bed between our pillows. We have a king sized bed now (bought so that we could fit sleeping children in when necessary) and there’s generally room for a third pillow between Mark’s and mine. Not that Leila will have a pillow. That’s just to indicate how much space is available.

This is really because I would like to be able see her face without having to sit up and disrupt other sleepers unnecessarily. I know from having Finn and because of the state of my hearing these days that I won’t always trust what I hear and will have to look at her to satisfy myself that she really is sleeping/waking up, etc.

I worry more about rolling onto Finn these days than I did when he was little. When he sleeps with us he tends to lean against me, which makes it almost impossible for me to move without rolling on him. The worry is less about hurting him than about him waking up with a fright from almost being squashed and then not being able to get him back to sleep again.