Thanks, Karen Gromada, for your post of Sept. 5 on this subject.
Co-sleeping didn't work for me: since my husband and I are such very
restless sleepers, I was terrified that we would hurt the baby. I never
minded (well, not too much) getting up at night to feed. Sometimes, as an
LC, I wonder how much this influences my advising women how to "get
baby to sleep thru the night". And then I'd start to feel guilty. And
*then* I got a grip.
In the first place, I *never* discuss this unless a mom asks
me about it, and I *never* support weaning from night feedings unless the
baby is over 8 or 9 mos. old. And the reasoning for the latter (before
everyone groans to death out there) lies in empathizing and knowing the
culture I deal with. It's amazing how different it is here, and the
stresses, on mothers especially, may be difficult for "outsiders" to
understand. One thing upon which we all agree, I'm sure, is that every
case should be weighed individually, considering all parameters, risks,
etc. When co-sleeping works for a family, I beam at them (and feel
jealous!), and when waking at night is overwhelming a mom of an older
baby, who has older closely-spaced children, who works a full-time job,
and whose husband periodically goes into the army for active duty in a
combat zone, well, I am pretty motivated to help her get an uninterrupted
night's sleep if I can, and try to suppress my enthusiasm for
co-sleeping. Conflicted but not really, Judy K. in Beer Sheva, Israel