There are lots of different sleeping arrangements you can have with your kids, but my favorite, that I’ve used with all three of my boys, is co-sleeping - specifically bed sharing. Each of my babies has slept in the bed with me from the very first night they were born. Eventually, when they’re older, I transition them (at least part time) to their own bed, but co-sleeping has worked so well for my family.

There are a lot of people out there (your pediatrician included) who will scare you away from the very natural, mammalian act of sleeping next to your little ones. This is how most people, and most providers in the Western medical model were trained, and they simply don’t know any better. As always, you have to do what works for you and your family, but know that the nay-sayers usually don’t know anything about co-sleeping at all, and certainly haven’t tried it for themselves and seen the benefits.

Here are my top 5 reasons for why this has been the best sleeping arrangement in my home:

It’s what feels best & safest for me & my family
It allows me to be right beside my baby so I can respond to him before he even wakes.
It helps me breastfeed on demand throughout the night, maintaining the supply of milk my baby needs.
It allows me to get the most sleep possible, since I never have to fully wake up to breastfeed (just latch on and go back to sleep).
I get to wake up to his perfect, tiny face every morning.

If you’ve considered bed sharing, I encourage you to look deeper into it and think about how many other cultures still consider this a normal practice - just not in Western society. All other mammals do this - if they didn’t, and their babies slept far from them, they would be eaten by predators. Unless your instincts are dulled (if you’re drunk or on drugs), you aren’t a danger to your baby. You will wake to the slightest sound they make, but only enough to start to feed them and then fall back to sleep. And when you wake up, their beautiful little face will be right there to greet you.