Nothing is sweeter than having your child fall asleep on your shoulder or waking up next to your baby in the morning. However, some believe co-sleeping means sleep deprivation. This does not have to be the case! A few simple solutions can help everyone get enough sleep.1) Put the mattress on the floor. This keeps the unconscious worry that your child will fall out of bed during the night at bay. Beautiful quilts and extra pillows make the room look as lovely as any other part of a house occupied by a young child. I am also willing to bet that getting up from the mattress on the floor every morning will stave off the “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” years. 2) Put drinks in a cooler. Chances are your child will want a drink in the middle of the night. Our solution? We go to bed with a cooler packed with filled sippy cups and an ice pack. That way there are no middle of the night trips to the kitchen or debates as to whether or not the child actually needs a drink. If bottle feeding or supplementing, it helps to avoid using a bottle warmer when your child is an infant. This is a good idea anyway since having a child who will take a bottle at any temperature often comes in mighty handy. When breastfeeding, drinks in a cooler are helpful for Mom. 3) Double bag the untrained. Two diapers are better than one. If one gets too wet, it can be pulled out leaving the other one for the rest of the night. If you have hardwood or laminate floors and no roaming pets, the diaper can be taped up and tossed onto the floor until morning (otherwise it is a good idea to put a small trash can next to the bed). 4) Put a plastic shower curtain under your fitted sheet. These work better than any of the pads made for beds. Ugly or seasonal ones can be purchased quite cheap. They keep anything wet from making it onto the mattress and often make changing the bed less urgent. 5) Keep a towel or two next to the bed. If a leak is minor (or even moderate) there is no need to change the bed until morning. We use towels purchased for this purpose. Folded in half, it provides a dry place to sleep until morning. On a side note, it is also a good idea to invest in a half dozen fitted sheets and three or four comforters. That way you can change the bed every day without having to wait on laundry. 6) Finally, relax and enjoy your little one. One recent early morning my toddler sat bolt upright and screamed “my baby socks!” Bad dreams can rear their ugly heads no matter where a child sleeps. At least all it took to comfort her was to reach out and hug her.
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