Ingrid has learned a new skill: climbing over the pillows that separate her cot from our bed. This morning I was woken by someone butting against my legs.

We have a cot, but we’ve been sort of co-sleeping since the very beginning. I like her sleeping next to me. It’s cosy. During weekends and on my days off, I often join her for her morning nap, and then we sleep side by side in the big bed. I actually fall asleep more easily next to her than on my own, so I can imagine it’s the same for her. And I wouldn’t like bars separating me from my family when I sleep, so why would she?

But our bed is a little bit too narrow for all three of us together, so I compromise. Most of the time Ingrid spends part of the night in her cot, and part in the family bed. The cot stands right next to our bed, with the side removed, so it’s sort of an extension of the bed. She usually goes to sleep in the big bed (but sometimes not). Before I go to bed, she nurses, and then I usually lift her over into the cot just before she falls asleep.

I get the impression that she wakes more frequently when she sleeps closer to me, and I guess it might be because she smells the milk. So when she (inevitably) wants to nurse in the middle of the night she comes to the big bed for a snack, and then generally moves back. Other times she seems to sleep a lot more peacefully and wake less when she’s cuddled up next to me. So when she’s ill or otherwise upset for some reason, or when she has difficulty going to sleep and I’m too tired to bother, she gets to stay all night. (Basically I just do whatever feels right, or feels good, at the time.)

Unfortunately co-sleeping often means less sleep or stiff backs for Eric and myself. She sleeps a bit more deeply now than she used to, and kicks less, which is good, and I am less worried about accidentally crushing her during the night, which is also good, but on the other hand she is bigger and shifts around more and takes up more space. I think the solution might simply be to get a bigger bed.