When I wrote about Five Toddler Sleep Lessons, Rosemary left a question in the comments section:
Interesting to read all your experiences and to see what a common problem this is…I’m in a tough situation so your advice would be helpful.
I’ve co-slept with my son since he was 3 months old, and it has worked great for us. He wakes up to nurse, then falls right back asleep. Neither of us wake up fully, so I’ve been able to have great sleep from from about 12 mos until now (24 mos.)
But over the last 2 weeks his sleep has been terrible. …read more

Okay, fine, it’s not exactly media-worthy, but it is Big News in our house. News worthy of Capital Letters. You see, my husband has been able to settle my 15-month-old back to sleep THREE TIMES over the last several nights!
My husband is a great father and very good with the kids, so it should not be quite so newsworthy, except my other daughters refused to be settled back to sleep by anyone other than me (and my mum-mums) until they were over two-and-a-half years old! So the fact that my husband was able to settle our third daughter at the …read more

No poll results have surprised me more than these. I understand that the pool of readers who actually answer the polls here (only a very small fraction of people who visit the blog — I hope more of you vote in the latest poll to help me name my baby!) might be quite skewed, but I still was shocked to find that nearly 2/3 of voters co-sleep with their breastfed infants under age 12 months. With all the bad press and debate about the safety of co-sleeping, I didn’t realize how many families find that co-sleeping works for them!

In light of the recent debates over the safety of co-sleeping versus baby sleeping in a crib, and the issue of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, I thought it would be interesting to survey where our nurslings are sleeping. I limited the poll to nurslings because I think it affects several things — safety, parenting style, and just plain convenience of the sleep location! Please answer for where your baby usually (more than 50% of the night) sleeps or slept when he was under 12 months of age. Feel free to leave a comment to explain your situation. I know my …read more

When Los Angeles County officials issued a warning about co-sleeping with an infant, National Public Radio host Larry Mantle opened up the topic for a 35-minute discussion on AirTalk on KPCC 89.3 (listen here). In addition to Deanne Tilton Durfee, director of the Los Angeles County Interagency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, guests included co-sleeping advocate Dr. William Sears, co-author of The Baby Sleep Book: The Complete Guide to a Good Night’s Rest for the Whole Family, Dr. Charles Sophy, Medical Director for the L.A. County Department of Childen and Family Services, and Dr. James J. McKenna, Director of …read more

Last Friday’s post featured an excerpt from the 18th century “Prayer to Be Said When She Nurses for the First Time.” It’s a beautiful prayer and it speaks eloquently to the hopes and fears of every new mother. There is an additional portion of the prayer that reads:

No, no, “Cheap and Easy” is not referring to the reader who was kind enough to write in with her breastfeeding story! “Cheap and Easy” refers to breastfeeding, of course! Jen writes that she practices attachment parenting, co-sleeping and using a sling. Luckily for me she’s also addicted to the internet and she is an obsessive documenter of everyday life–hence her story: