At first I laughed when I read the line in the article about people finding
it unreasonable to put a firm mattress on the floor, since mine was ready
to go when I was about 8mo pregnant, but I've never been particularly
fashionable.  When the parents have a posh bedroom setup that just isn't
going to work for cosleeping, but they are exhausted, I suggest the FLOOR.
 They can take the crib mattress out of the crib and put it on the floor,
and then sleep right next to it themselves.  Once they feel how hard a crib
mattress is, they can buy a spare twin or full mattress of that hardness
and keep it tucked under the big bed during the day.  Or baby can sleep on
a receiving blanket directly on the floor next to mom.  Very thin covers
only, with a safe space heater out of reach if it's cold.  I once had a mom
who slept in a recliner with baby on her chest, and she was not interested
in changing that, since so far it was working, so the best I could do was
suggest using a non-padded ring sling (and then you can knot to end through
the ring so it can't loosen) to snug the baby pretty tightly to her in an
upright position.

It helps to put away the style magazines.  They make it hard to think
outside the box. Think "National Geographic meets IKEA" instead.  I used to
think that anti-bedsharing folks were misguided, until I discovered that a
lot of Americans do sleep in setups that are *wildly* inappropriate for
infants. Most of my close friends were like me, and it wasn't until I had
my first affluent clients that I discovered that people really do have
fancy, expensive bedrooms just like the magazines show.

Lynn Carter OFS LLLL IBCLC
Missouri, USA

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