I wasn’t ready for newborn sleep. Even with years of reading about it, talking about it, walking with various clients through their early days and weeks — I wasn’t ready for what it would look like when I was the one with the newborn in my own bedroom.

I didn’t expect bedsharing to become as non-negotiable as it was in the early days at home. But the honest truth was — early on, our baby would not sleep in more than 5–10-minute intervals without being on or near me. And I needed sleep.

I felt like a failure at first. Even with all I have learned about newborn biology, I somehow thought I could “figure out a way” to achieve the perfect sleeping conditions — supporting my baby and the ideal safety guidelines. But I wasn’t failing. I was just navigating my sleep challenges, as all parents do.

And as always happens with babies — things gradually changed. And when my baby was ready and able to sleep a little more away from me, for a little bit longer time, my Babybay Cosleeper was right there next to me to support those next steps.

Reason #1: It helped us develop better quality sleep.
The honest truth is — every night of sleeping doesn’t look the same with a newborn. So when I say that our co-sleeping experience just worked, I don’t mean we got the same steady hours of sleep time with the co-sleeper every time. Some nights turned into a mixture — some time in the cosleeper, and some time in the bed. But over time, we saw that our baby girl grew more and more comfortable in the Babybay Cosleeper.

Reason #2: It made breastfeeding a less sleep-interrupting activity.
One reason it worked so well was that it made it easy for me to access her for nighttime feedings. I don’t think I can stress enough how much of a difference it makes to not have to get up in the middle of the night to walk over to my baby, pick her up, feed her out of bed, and then settle her back into a separate space before settling myself back to sleep. All I have to do instead is lift her to me, feed her, and then set her back down an arms-length away.

Reason #3: It gave me peace of mind.
I’ve struggled with anxiety since my early teens. So going into postpartum, I was worried about — well — how worried I would be — about pretty much everything — but definitely the nighttime. I remember once waking up in the wee hours of the night when my daughter was maybe a month and a half old, from a scary dream about her safety. I looked over and she was laying down in her cosleeper — nothing near her face, no danger of falling, nothing to be concerned about. She was safe and sleeping soundly. So I went back to sleep myself, without any further fuss.

My expectations going into new parenthood were that I would be able to paint the picture of what nighttime sleep looked like for us — with our Babybay Cosleeper at the center. What I found instead was that our cosleeper gradually developed more and more of a leading role in a combination of strategies for safe and effective sleep. And our first months as a little family became so much better for it.

*I am delighted to be affiliated with Babybay USA.
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Citations + Resources:
https://cosleeping.nd.edu/safe-co-sleeping-guidelines/
https://www.llli.org/the-safe-sleep-seven/
https://neuroanthropology.net/2008/12/21/cosleeping-and-biological-imperatives-why-human-babies-do-not-and-should-not-sleep-alone/
https://www.llli.org/bedsharing-babies/