Where Did Your Newborn Sleep?

We had a bassinette, but neither of my babies slept well in it. I thought it would be cozier, but they hated it. If I was having another, I'd stick with a crib.

Our first 6 slept in their room. (Great idea)

Our last two slept in our bed. (Bad idea) Our #7 slept in our bed until #8 was born. (He was about 3 and a half.) Our #8 slept in our bed until he was about 6 years old and would sneak back into our bedroomduring the night an sleep on the floor and tried to sneak into our bed.

Like I said, having a baby sleep in your bed is a BAD idea. Good luck to you and yours.

Both my kids slept in their own room, in their crib, from the day they came home. I used the baby monitor. It was the best advice I got...put them in their own bed awake (naps too), and they will learn to sleep on their own. They slept thru the night, 12 hours straight, the first week they were home. They are now 12 and 9 and are still great sleepers. Good luck!!!

Babies 2 & 3 slept in a Fisher Price cradle swing for the first 4 mos of their lives. I transitioned them both to cribs at 4 mos, and they have been great sleepers. My youngest is 16 mos, and from about 4-8 mos he slept in his crib, in our room.

We also have a Koalcraft bassinet, and that was ok too, but my babies loved the side-to-side motion of the swing.

A crib isn't too big if you swaddle your babies.

Many of the cradle swings that are made now can be plugged in, so you wouldn't be eating up batteries.

My DD spent her first several months sleeping in her bouncy chair. She had reflux, and broke her collarbone during delivery, so laying flat was painful for her.

Once she was out of the chair, she slept in her crib in our room. If the crib seems to big for them, you could fold a blanket and put it in a laundry basket, then let your baby sleep in that in the crib. (redneck as heck sounding, I know... but it's pretty much a miniature crib! Just make sure you pick one that won't get her hands stuck if she flails around...lol)

My babies slept in their cribs from day 1.
I had a bassinette attachment for our stroller that I put in their cribs for the first couple of weeks.
Then, full time crib. (at 4 and 5 weeks)

I would not have had it any other way.
DH and I had a plan to make sure that we both got at least 4 hrs of consecutive sleep every night. Newborns are so loud with their grunting and squirming, and if one of us was not getting up to feed them, there was no reason for the other person not to sleep soundly.
Worked well for us.

My first was crib in the same room (he was a horrible sleeper as newborns do not like to sleep straight flat on their backs in a giant open space), 2nd bassinet, 3rd bassinet. I adjusted the bassinet so that one side was slightly higher than the other.

When my 2nd two (I was clueless with the 1st) were brand new they slept in their bouncy seats as they are upright and more tight/cozy.

Whatever your plan, realize that your baby may not like it, and you will have to change it up if you want any sleep ;)

If I had a baby now I would get the rock and play sleeper, as it meets all the snuggly newborn requirements (upright sleeping, cozy, and right by mom and dad). Your baby will get a flat head sleeping on any flat surface - get one of these http://www.amazon.com/Boppy-Noggin-Support-Brown-Wheels/d...

We had a bassinet that had NO soft, puffy sides. It had mesh sides so we could see our daughter and so the air could circulate. I loved it.

Please do not get any bassinet with soft linings -- you are right to be wary of them. They are a huge suffocation/SIDS risk. I was at the pediatrician's yesterday and noticed the huge poster on the wall about "reducing risk of SIDS" and the tips included baby not sleeping in an adult bed, and baby not having anything at all in the crib but....baby!

You also definitely can set up the crib in your room for the early months! But do move the baby into her own room after the first few months so you can have a normal life and normal bedroom for your own sanity.

I think a crib is plenty cozy and secure for a newborn. Learn to swaddle her safely and properly. But a high quality crib (NO drop sides, they have been universally recalled and are dangerous, period) is fine for even an infant.

By the way, please avoid all those cutesy and very dangerous "crib bumpers" and baby pillows and baby quilts and other junk for cribs. They are all suffocation hazards. Infants do not need them, nor do they need blankets (except if properly swaddled in a thin swaddling blanket that stays firmly around the baby). It drives me nuts that baby stores and even other parents push the crib bumpers etc. when they are suffocation hazards. Don't cave to fashion or pressure from other parents who insist your child will be scarred for life if she sticks an arm between the crib slats a few times.

My son slept in a bassinet in our room for the first week. He was SUCH a loud sleeper, grunting, snoring, groaning, etc that I got no sleep even when he was asleep. After a week of this we moved him to his crib in his room, he has been a fantastic sleeper ever since. We have a video monitor, which helped me with the separation anxiety. Sleeping in his own room in the crib has been the best thing for the whole family. Now he's a toddler and he puts himself to sleep. When he's tired he will reach for the crib and try to get in it.

We didn't have a bassinet and our bedroom was too small to fit a crib or a playpen.
We tried having him sleep in his car seat, but I didn't want him in it for long periods of time.
I ended up putting a large cardboard box on the floor next to my side of the bed and we put an empty dresser drawer on that - it was very stable.
I put a folded baby blanket on the bottom of the drawer and it worked perfectly for the first few weeks.
After that he was fine in his crib in his room across the hall from us.

Our first babies slept in their own rooms in a regular sized crib. Then later we had problems with the older child being too interested in the baby so put a porta crib in our room for the first few months until the older child adjusted to not bothering the baby, the others all were moved into their own room as soon as possible and none slept in our bed. They slept all night, most did from early on. We didn't disturb them in bed or getting up and they didn't disturb our sleep. If you swaddle a newborn the huge crib won't seem so big. You could put the baby sideways too and it feels more secure to them. The twins, grandsons, slept that way fine. I don't like bassinets as they seem to close to the face to breathe well. Pack 'n play is not comfortable looking and more for playing in although I know many sleep in them. I think the big crib is perfect and they are used to their own bed from then on.

My children have both slept in their cribs from day one, but we used the Nap Nanny. This thing is amazing! http://www.napnanny.com/

This is one of the few "gimicky" items that we actually purchased and would suggest to others.

My son slept in our room in his pack n play for a couple of months until we go his crib. Once when we got his crib I moved the pack n play into the living room and the crib stayed in our room. For a little over a year he slept in our room mainly in his crib but sometimes he would sleep with my husband and myself. That was when I was nursing him and too tired to put him back in his crib. Once when my son was about 14 months old he moved into his own room. That is also when all of our roommates moved out of our apartment so it was easier for our son to stay in our room at first. When we do have another child I'll do the same thing with the crib being in our room.

My husband made a cradle. Our kids slept there for the first three months or so, then they started sleeping in their own room.

Baby #1 in a bassinet that got rolled out if she was noisy, then a crib.

Baby #2 in bed with us, sometimes in a crib, then to a very low profile car bed.

Baby #3, in bed with us, or her carseat , or in my arms or someone else's, as I was super busy taking my eldest to water polo tournaments and high school functions. She never slept in a crib, even though we had one.

My babies were all cosleepers and I was very happy with that choice. So was my husband because he didn't have to go fetch a baby to nurse.

Our youngest preferred his own space earlier than the other two, but he was good with the pack and play in our room then.

My newborns slept in our room in a bassinet, and also napped during the day in a pack n play. Neither seemed to sleep better or worse in the pack in play than bassinet.

Arms Reach co-sleeper and my bed with the second. She would make it most of the night in the co-sleeper, but I would invariably fall asleep with her during at least one feeding at night. Hence, the "my bed" part.

We tried a bassinet for our first, and it was a major fail. I ended up cosleeping with her for the first several months.

Both my kiddos slept in pack-n-plays. It's a serious bonus if you ever travel with them. You get to bring their real bed with you.

my baby slept in her bassinet in my room till she was 6 weeks old. i would put a light blanket underneath the bassinet sheet so that it was softer and warmer. i moved her into her crib (slowly at first...for naps and then bedtime) at 6 weeks old. she was totally in her crib by 8 weeks old. co-sleeping was not for us, tho i do see its advantages and disadvantages. i know some who put their baby in their crib from day one. i just wanted my baby close at first. she did still look small in crib, but she sleeps better there now than she did in her bassinet. you could always swadle and put them in the crib so that they feel cozy and secure.

I co-slept for the most part but I did use a bassinet for the times where I wasn't going to bed. Then a pack and play once they out grew the bassinet. I only owned one crib and it never got used lol

My youngest had a flat right side of her head, no matter where she slept, where we put her she would turn to her right. I was concerned cause he head was flatter then any of my other childrens heads ever got. My doc wasn't as worried about it. She was about a year old before it straightened itself out, but even now she still sleeps on her right side (she's 2 1/2). Flat heads can happen on any surface, moving them around and in different positions will help prevent it.

She slept in a carbed (part of a stroller combo) until she was 4 months. I then moved her to her crib in a different room with brother. The carbed was on my side of the bed and I could just reach in and get her to nurse and put her back. There were times when I would wake up and find that she was in the middle of the bed between hubby and me and we were all fine no one rolled on anyone.

When she was sick I would go down to her room and make a bed on the floor and take care of her there and not disturb dad.

Brother came to our house at five weeks old (adoption) and went directly into a crib and slept fine. He only spent the night with me in bed when he was very ill and I needed some sleep as well as he and then we went to the doctor in the morning.

So I did not have the problem of gettin the kids out of the bed at age 3 to 5 to sleep in their own room.

I spent time with an aunt once and she had her grandsons in the crib at the end of the bed and they were so noisy with their grunts and turning that I couldn't sleep. So that might have been why I put my kids in their own room.

Do what you feel best.

The other S.

PS I had bumpers in my bed for my son and he just pushed them out of the way and I took them out. This was back in the days of the drop side cribs. I also lowered the mattress as the kids got bigger so that they were not top heavy. Once they started bailing out we switched them to beds.

I highly recomment the Fisher Price Rock & Play Sleeper. Check it out on Amazon to get reviews. Target also sells them.

As far as getting a flat head, babies can get a flathead from anything if they lay in one spot too long. I swaddled my babies and put them at a slight angle and rotated sides every night.

We've always kept their babies in their cribs from the beginning. For the first, we were in a one bedroom apartment and just set the crib up in our bedroom to begin with... no room for anything else! When we moved into a big house, my daughter was 7 months old and was completely used to being in her crib. Having it in a new room didn't phase her. It worked out so well, we just did the exact same thing with our second even though we had more space. If you have space in your bedroom for the crib, you can get a little snuggie thing to put around them for the first month or so, or just keep them swaddled. Saves money and better for the environment to avoid buying something that will only be used for a few months.

We had the arms reach cosleeper. My daughter slept it for a total of maybe 10 hours. But then she wouldn't sleep unless someone was holding her for the first three months. Then she slept with us. Not what I wanted to do but after three months of no sleep you do whatever it takes for them to sleep.

Our son slept in the cosleeper until he started to roll over and pull himself up. I loved it. It was perfect for nursing (although we didn't set it up to be anchored to our bed, just used it like a bassinet). It can also be used as a playpen, but we never did that. It can be folded up and transported like a pack and play, but it seemed a little hard to set up and is really heavy to carry (if you have the full size one).

Arms Reach co-sleeper and w/ me. it was the only way she would sleep.