Baby Delight Deluxe Snuggle Nest for Your Baby

If you're not comfortable having your baby in bed with you, but still want to sleep close to your baby, the Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper Original Bassinet is a great option. The Bassinet Co Sleeper attaches securely to your adult bed under the top mattress and will fit all bed sizes from twin to cal king. This infant co sleeper is a great way to provide nighttime nursing for your infant without having to get out of bed, yet still keeps your baby safe and secure in his own sleeping environment.

Arm's Reach offers their bedside sleeper in many different colors and models, even a mini-bassinet if space is an issue for you.

The Tres Tria Co-sleeping Solution
is an amazing product that you can use beginning in pregnancy. The Tres Tria Co-Sleeping Solution is a a natural latex (natural latex regulates heat well, and so, you will not sweat!), half- cylinder bolster that slips underneath the fitted sheet on your bed. Nothing else is needed to hold it in place. It prevents children from rolling off the bed for sure and in a much softer way than a rail would, but can also be used as a nursing positioner, a pregnancy pillow, a barrier between two sleeping children, a toddler bed rail, or a reading pillow. The uses are really endless!! What's really wonderful about it is that it can grow and change with your child. You can even use it for travel as it is a mere 36" in length and also flexible, so it can fit in your suitcase for use in hotels, at grandma's and wherever else you travel!

In the United States, it seems like we are almost as anxious to get rid of our kids as we are to have them. We give birth, then we race to get them to sleep in their own bed, ship them off to all day pre-kindergarten, and then send them away to college. Of course, the whole time we are trying to get our babies to sleep on their own, we race to Toys R Us to buy dolls that have heartbeats, breathe, and snore so they don't miss us while we are gone. Considering time is the one thing we can't get back, wouldn't it be better to just be there yourself and sleep with your baby?

In his book on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, pediatrician William Sears cites co-sleeping as a proactive measure parents can take to reduce the risk of this tragedy. McKenna's research shows that babies who sleep with parents spend less time in Level III sleep, a state of deep sleep when the risk of apneas are increased. In addition, co-sleeping babies learn to imitate healthy breathing patterns from their bunkmates.

Every scientific study of infant sleep confirms that babies benefit from co-sleeping. Not one shred of evidence exists to support the widely held notion that co-sleep is detrimental to the psychological or physical health of infants, regardless of what the mainstream media (and crib manufacturers) would like for you to believe.

But when it all comes down to it - the decision to co-sleep needs to be an educated one that you make, and it can even vary from baby to baby (my second child moved into his own bed by age two simply because he wanted to - my oldest was 4 before she was strongly encouraged to make that step, and my third child, who is three seems to be the kind that will need that strong encouragement as well!) If you do decide to co-sleep with your infant, you can rest assured that you aren't scarring him for life, and that eventually he or she will sleep on their own (because they likely won't want to take you to college with them!)

I've been pretty blessed when it comes to sleeping babies. All my kids needed was a good swaddle and they were set - for at least an hour or two. But when you want more than a couple of hours sleep at a time, sometimes you have to turn to the professionals.

Isn't it funny how most of the advice for parents when it comes to getting their baby to sleep is for the parent's behavior? Babies know how to sleep - they do it all the time - it's getting them to sleep how and when we want them to sleep that is the issue. With that in mind here are five tips from Dr. Sears on how to help your baby sleep better (at least according to you!)

Develop a realistic attitude about nighttime parenting. Sleeping, like eating, is not a state you can force a baby into.

Beware of sleep trainers. Ever since parenting books found their way into the nursery, sleep trainers have touted magic formulas promising to get babies to sleep through the night - for a price and at a risk. Most of these sleep-training techniques are just variations of the old cry-it-out method.

Stay flexible. No single approach will work with all babies all the time or even all the time with the same baby.

Decide where baby sleeps best. Realistically, most parents use various sleeping arrangements at various stages during the infant's first two years. Be open to changing styles as baby's developmental needs and your family situation changes.

Get baby used to a variety of sleep associations. The way an infant goes to sleep at night is the way she expects to go back to sleep when she awakens. So, if your infant is always rocked or nursed to sleep, she will expect to be rocked or nursed back to sleep. Sometimes nurse her off to sleep, sometimes rock her off to sleep, sometimes sing her off to sleep, and sometimes use tape recordings; and switch off with your spouse on putting her to bed.

Use these tips to help you sleep as well as your baby! Have a good night!