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Part of attachment parenting is the family bed.

I don’t know about you but I hate to sleep alone.

When my son was born, it just didn’t feel right not having him right there with me to sleep. I mean, he spent the last 40 weeks sleeping with me, growing inside my body, and to make him have to sleep all by himself just didn’t make any sense to me at all.

He had already become accustomed to hearing my heartbeat, listening to my breathing, and feeling the heat of my body. He was safe and comfortable in the womb, so why wouldn’t he feel comfortable sleeping with me outside of the womb?

Babies have a primitive need to be close to another person while they are going to sleep. They need to feel that warmth of their mother to feel safe and secure. Sleeping next to their mother is also the best way for them to regulate their body temperature.

Since he was breast-feeding it was just too easy to have him there in bed with me anyway. No trekking to the kitchen to get a bottle, make it, heat it, sit up and feed him, burp him, change him, and try to get back to sleep. Instead, I would help him to latch on and off we would both drift back to sleep.

We have shared our bed with all of our children. The three oldest have all moved to their own beds, except for that special occasion when they are home alone with mom and dad. So now we have the youngest two in our bed and occasionally the two dogs (100+ pound Pit-bull and a Min Pin).

I have become so accustomed to the kids being there; when they are not home I can’t sleep. I dread the day when there will no longer be a little one to snuggle. I guess I’ll just have to let the dogs sleep with us more often then.

Because I get so many questions about the safety of sleeping with an infant I just wanted to add that my husband and I have never rolled on any of our kids. Many "experts" promote the horror stories of babies suffocating because one of their parents rolled on them. In these cases the parents were either intoxicated or on medication that caused them to sleep very soundly. Because of these stories some people are afraid to let their babies sleep with them even though throughout the ages this is where babies slept before cradles and cribs were invented, and it is still commonplace in tradition tribal cultures.

If you choose not to co-sleep with your baby because you are afraid of rolling on them there are wonderful products on the market like the Arm's Reach Original Co-Sleeper. It attaches to your bed so baby is right there next to you. You get most of the benefits of co-sleeping with the peace of mind that baby will not be rolled on.

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