The Family Bed - One Solution To Getting A Good nights Sleep

Many years ago when we had our first daughter, we followed the usual advice at the time to have our baby sleep in its own bed, in its own room. However she did not agree to that arrangement and cried her heart out until we relented and let her cuddle up to Mum in our bed. She stopped crying immediately and slept reasonably peacefully all night - I went and slept on the livingroom couch. Now it was me who had trouble sleeping!!! We discussed this with a family friend, who also had very young children, and she recommended a book called something like "The Family Bed"and it gave us confifence to all sleep together. Now this went against official advice at the time that warned of the risk of smothering your baby. So as a compromise I built a platform beside our bed and put a small mattress on it at the same level as our bed. I got back into the big bed and my wife simply rolled over at night to breast feed our daughter. From then on we all slept much better and when our next baby arrived we did much the same and our first daughter was then quite happy to sleep in her own room. Our daughters now have their own children and sadly did not folloew our advice. Consequently the men often slept elsewhere or with their other child. Their children continued to need someone to be near at bedtime for many years and both parents had many nights of insufficient sleep. Of course for thousands of years families have slept together and only recently has that changed in many Western societies. I am writing this to help couples having their first child. Believe me, the above set up I have described really works. If you don't want to build your own baby bed platform, a cot with a drop down side might be okay, or perhaps mattresses on the floor might work and be cheaper. If you do the latter remember to put slates under the mattresses to allow the mattresses to ventilate and not get moldy.