Our daughter Yanna (26-04-2008) is sleeping with us in our family-bed. Our son Timo (05-10-2005) has his own bed next to mine, so we have a really big family-bed.

We are practicing AP since Timo was born and have always rocked or fed him to sleep. Since he turned 2,5 years old he goes to sleep on his own in his own bed. We used the sticker method. Every morning a sticker if he went to sleep on his own.

Now that our daughter has been born she sleep's with us and she sleeps most of the time in our arms, sling or mei tai and sometimes in her carrier or crib. But then we walk or she fell asleep in our arms and is put there. She doesn't fall asleep being fed.

My question is: How do other parents who practice AP bring their babies to bed and do you also hold your baby or do you lay your baby in their crib? And what is a nice way to let them sleep on their own.

I love to hold her while she falls asleep, but our son doesn't always agree with this and he wants some attention too. It puzzles me, but I can't think of the right answer, if there is one...

And also are there any books on this subject. Tehy may also be in dutch.

Thanks everyone for their answer.

Jus Irien

Hi
Mine would have fallen asleep in their sling in the evening as well so I would have hands free for the older ones.
I suppose all of them have fallen asleep with me or my husband holding them until they were a lot older.
Now my 2 and 4 year old are near to us to sleep and the rest (6,8,11) go up to their shared space and we read and relax together to go to bed. Its something we found changed as they grew.
My oldest 2 are 15 and 18 and have no sleep issues at all and would also have coslept and nursed to sleep.
The 2 books i love are The Family Bed and 2 in a Bed which I found great.

I remember when my children were a new born,2 and 3 yo (beautifull days )...
and they sometims wake up during night.....
well,my dh helped me a lot.When I was BF the third one,my dh was with 2 and 3 yo.When sometimes I was alone ,I used very much a sling for the younger,and a crib for the second and go around my little house.The third is a very hard player so...he played very much longer until the other were asleep .This summer,I wasn't BF them so usually we were in a large bed and read a lot with a light.I'm not able to read only one book
So everyone choose one book and then I readed for everyone!
We've sleeped in 5 in a bed (yes!) .Then the 2 "bigger" at about 4 and 3 yo beguin to sleep in their room with my dh untill they fall asleep.
Now they choose wich one of us (mother or father) read the book for who.
They sleep in their room and generally the big one is always very near her sister....he wants constant contact!sometimes family bed is full again.They're welcome!
Books:nightime parenting by sears and three in a bed by debora jackson
Love,Chiara.

I have found that DD loves routine. At 2.5 yrs she likes to know what is happening next. I try and stick to a dinner, bath, books and bed routine. During the routine I remind her what is coming next. She always gets three books and I tell her the light is going out after we read the last book. That said, I am still in the bed with her wrapped around me until she is asleep! If/ when I get out of the bed, she will often wake up looking for me. From very young she liked and insisted on being fed and rocked to sleep and also while asleep - its the constant contact thing again, like Chiara said. In fact, it was DD who introduced me to nearly all aspects of AP and insisted on it!

DS at 3 months old seems to like routine too. While he will sleep in a sling, the only other place he will sleep is in his basket beside our bed. He wont sleep in the car seat, buggy, arms etc. But again, the routine of feed, rock, sleep must be maintained - as does low levels of light and sound - even for day time naps.

HTH

Good to read that getting your todler to sleep can be difficult, even with co-sleeping Our DD (1 1/2 yo) sleeps with us, but now that I'm not breastfeeding anymore it sometimes seems to take forever before she's really tired and nestles next to me to sleep. Reading books to her helps, she always watches an episode of her favourite dvd (now that Sesame Street isn't on air around bedtime anymore...) and then she just plays around with her dolls and a book in bed. One day she'll fall asleep at eight, the other day at nine thirty... I don't know what to do to change that, since we go upstairs every evening around the same time and stick to a routine pretty much. I'd like to have her fall asleep sooner, but on the other hand, you can't force someone to sleep, so as long as she's not breaking down the house, I don't mind much and just lie with her, sometimes even reading a book of my own. But good to read your stories, maybe I can try out some of your ideas!

Greetings, Nienke