Re: Co-Sleeping vs. Crying It Out; the science of CIO

Hi Laura,
Thank you for this information. When we first had Jacob we were getting pressured by everyone from friends to church members to let our baby cry it out and they seemed to shun co-sleeping and breastfeeding longer than a year. We did it a couple times and my son would cling to me like a coala bear the next day. I knew it was wrong and I stopped right away. I realized that I actually loved having my baby next to me in bed and the closeness was almsot theraputic. It brought on soo many happy close feelings and especially security. Then I started to read books by Dr. Sears and look at the Science behind co-sleeping. I actually felt so relieved reading his books and realizeing that there is support and that what we are doing is perfectly natural and normal. Its actually the other people who are not normal and who have given into the pressures of society. I read up on SIDs and it shows that thousands of babies die alone in a crib, while the co-sleeping babies that have died in thier sleep is less than 40 per year. It seems that from these numbers co-sleeping is safer. The co-sleeping related deaths were becuase the parents were drinking or doing drugs. Those people should never co sleep. Other than that its very safe. There are also safe ways to set up your bed to make it even safer. For the new baby we are getting the co-sleeper which attachs to our bed and that we will have both babies in bed with us. I am soo glad my husand is supportive about co-sleeping. My husband is a cuddle bear.

Sarah

Oh by the way- I am trying to get Jacob to lay down and take naps at church. Is there any trick to this? He wants to just go go go all the time. I would love to get out of the mothers room. Any ideas?