Not really the couch, but out of the bed with mom and dad to the bassinet co-sleeper next door, and then eventually to the crib in their own room.<br><br>Our baby girl is only 2 weeks old, but what have the other daddies experienced? Based on what we've read and been told by friends and family, we shouldn't worry too much until after the first month.<br><br>Three's A Crowd was a horrible spin-off of Three's Company anyway. No 5-year-old's sleeping with Daddy and Mama.

All the advice we got was not to start. SIDS and suffocation issues not to mention mid-night rolling were convincing for me. Duncan was in his crib the night we took him home and hasn't ever been trouble.

Yeah - same here. our first born was in his own bassinet in his own room from the moment he was born, then he graduated to his own cot.<br><br>Life after a new baby is tough enough without worrying about rolling over and squashing them

We did a bassinet in the room for 3 months & then to his own room/crib. I have a friend whose 9 year old STILL sleeps with her every night because she never broke the pattern. No way for us! Once you transition to the seperate room, you will be a lot happier to have your room back. I slept better once he was out of the room. I actually worried about him less. Although, the 1st few nights are rough because you will probably check on her constantly. (Ok, so I still check my son every night before I head to bed to make sure he's ok.)<br><br>I agree with Ben though-the scare of SIDS or rolling over on him kept us from having my son in our bed all night.

You're both right about the fear of SIDS and/or rolling over her, although my wife is side-lying feeding and it helps her with sleep. We've had no problems to date but definitely want to get Bea in the bassinet sooner than later. Last night we put her in there and she slept for almost three hours. We'll keep working on it.<br><br>Thank you!

Do it as soon as ya can. Not just to keep the kid from being in the habit, but YOU as well... Ours is 8 months and still in the bed, ONLY because it's easier for US to quiet him right there, rather than having to physically get up and go over to a crib. Seriously, it's OUR laziness... and this kid is a fantastic sleeper really. A bit fidgety, but not fussy... But to get over the fear of rolling over on him (Mom's fear, not mine), we put him on a lil' mattress with sides on it in the bed(I think it was meant to be a changing pad). So we couldn't actually roll over on him.<br><br>We REALLY gotta get him in a crib. He's gettin' more and more fidgety, and my ribs are gettin' sore from gettin' kicked at 2am.

Thank you for your candor. Two nights in row we've made progress in the bassinet next to our bed. Next step - Vegas! Whoo-hoo!

Yeah Bea! Put $20 on black for me...I'm good for it. <br><br>I also did the side nursing thing when I could. Yet, I was so paranoid about having my kid still in bed with us through college that I refused to let him stay in bed except on the occasion where nothing else worked. (Nothing like the feeling of that little sweet angel next to you...sigh.) Daddy had the job of putting him back into the bassinet or crib later on. It worked out well.<br>1. Baby cries.<br>2. Daddy goes & changes baby while I got a few seconds to wake enough to feed him.<br>3. After Daddy drops baby off, he sleeps until baby finishes feeding.<br>4. I handed back baby for Daddy to return to bassinet/crib.<br><br>Sound similar to everyone?

That's exactly what we're doing. I seem to be getting a lot of sleep doing it this way. He's only 8 days old but it's been pretty good so far.

Careful now! Vegas is what got me into this!

LOL

Now that's a birth story.

Twas a fun trip for sure. <br><br>Not the safest pic for work... but(t) amusing...<br>i131.photobucket.com/albums/p288/concret...;br><br>The recap is on my blog - it's a long read, and if ya don't dig skating, ya may not care for it... But it's here anyway: concretins.blogspot.com/search?q=vegas

Sweet. I'll check it out.

Nope, the pic wasn't safe for work...butt nice!

There was no way in double h hockey sticks I was going to have 2 premature babies in bed with me... no way, no how! Two babies plus SIDS risk.... yeah.. that just wasn't gonna happen.<br><br>As I've mentioned in my novel about sleep habits, me and the girls camped out in the living room for the first few months. I on the couch, Ziva in the pack n' play and Anya in her bouncy seat (she had reflux and was happiest sitting more upright).<br><br>At 4 months, once they started sleeping through the night, we moved to our bedroom. Ziva in the crib next to the bed, Anya in her bouncy seat, and us in our bed.<br><br>At about 7 months old we moved the girls into their own room, each in their own crib. We haven't looked back.<br><br>The transitions between each step were much easier then I expected they would be. As with anything, there's really no way to know how easy or hard such things will be unless you just give it a try.<br><br>Good luck to you three!

Thanks, Amy. We're at two weeks and two days now...one day at a time.

I'm probably going to ruffle more than a few feathers with this one but... our daughter slept in our bed until she was approx. 6-7. She started sleeping in her own room when my son joined the army and opened up a third bedroom. Occasionally she'll sleep with mom (i work at night).

Yikes. Well, there you go then. I don't feel so bad about 3 weeks now!

It's really odd to see that so many people have been told NOT to co-sleep. The risk of a child dying via co-sleeping is about the same someone driving to work and getting into an accident, it's very low. If more people would read for themselves about the benefits of co-sleeping as opposed to listening to other people, they might learn a few things. Co-sleeping is very beneficial indeed. Most deaths that occur while co-sleeping occur when the parents are drunk and/or careless, and that has been proven. It is something that both parents should willingly want to do, and they should be willing to do everything in their power to make the situation as safe for the baby, and as comfortable for them, as possible.

My wife and I have an Arm's reach co-sleeper that we got for our son and are now using for our newborn daughter. We knew we wanted to co-sleep, but we felt it would be best to not have the baby be directly in the bed with us because we both tend to sleep pretty wild at times. The co-sleeper is next to my wife, as it has been proven that the benefits of co-sleeping are because of the chemistry between the mother and child. With our son, my wife decided that what we would do was use the co-sleeper at night, and during the day, he would take his naps in his crib. This way, he would be used to his room and bed for when we did begin allowing him to sleep in his nursery. We would do this up until he either hit six months old, or when he began to sleep through the night. Once either of these occurred, he would be placed in his own room. He began sleeping through the night at about 4 months of age. The first night we put him in his crib he woke up a couple of times, but the next night, he slept all the way through. The transition was easy, I think due to the fact that he was used to the room because he napped in it. That's what worked for us.

When we came home from the hospital, our son slept in the Pack & Play in our room for the first few weeks, and I would put him down to nap in his crib during the day. We put him in his crib in his own room at night when I went back to work at 6 weeks postpartum, and at 7 weeks he was sleeping through the night.

Occasionally he will take a nap with me or DH in our bed, but usually he is in his own crib, in his own room.

Every family is different. I can only tell you what worked for us.

Bassinet next to the bed for the first 4-6 months. We discovered that you can wiggle the bassinet with your toes and put the baby back to sleep sometimes.

Dad takes the couch if baby(or dad!) are having a rough night. No sense in everybody losing sleep.

Co-sleeping at this point was only after starting sleeping on his own. Morning naps with the whole family work great.

From 6 months on, he's been in his room. When he wakes up, he starts making noise. If it's before 6am, we wait it out, as he'll usually go back to sleep after a few minutes. If it's 6am or later, I'll pick him up, and bring him into bed with mom for a feeding.

I just wanted to say how much the responses here are helping me. When we brought our daughter home a few weeks ago, she slept just fine in her crib (we were getting 6 hours at a time some nights), but sometime in the past week she has stopped sleeping well in her crib, at least at night. We've tried her Sleep Sheep, a white noise CD, lights on, lights off, and nothing has worked. My wife and I actually started getting into an argument about how to handle this. She wanted the baby in the bed, and I thought that was a bad idea/bad pattern to start. Last night we finally tried something new: We pulled a very firm leather armchair we have in our bedroom over next to the bed (right up against it so she couldn't roll out, , put down a blanket for her to lay on, and then just put her on it like we would have in her crib. She woke up twice to feed, and that was it. It's not quite a bassinet (which we never bought), but it seems to be working so far.

@teacherdad

Necessity is the father of invention, and fathers have lots of necessities. There are also "co-sleeper" bassinet products on the market. If you have any safety concerns (some people are really finicky about baby sleeping mattresses, etc.) then you might want to look into one of these.