Employing the use of the co sleeper when our son insisted on sleeping with us was an utter failure. While we had the mini co sleeper attached to our bed it still dropped down four or five inches. I could not simply nurse our daughter in the side laying position and shove her over and down into the co sleeper. She clearly preferred sleeping next to me rather than in her own separate space. From that point on, I did not try to use the co sleeper for night time.
I ended up putting it downstairs and using it for her day time naps. We spent a few very uncomfortable nights with our son and daughter co sleeping with us while my sister, her husband, and their daughter stayed with us for our daughter’s baptism. During their visit my husband also contracted influenza from the guests at his place of employment, whereby he was quarantined to our bedroom (my sister and her husband chose to stay with us even with the potential risk of getting influenza too … in the end no one else in the house caught the bug) and I slept with both kids on the couch and the co sleeping continued. Now we have reached a point of semi balance with our night time routine.
Co sleeping with baby number two has been much easier so far for the simple fact that I am more experienced and our daughter is a better sleeper. I am really trying to enjoy our co sleeping time now. It seems like her newborn stage flew by so quickly. At three months she is so much more sturdy although I never had fears of rolling onto her this time around. She only wakes up a couple times at most to nurse during the night. We have special moments and our mommy daughter conversations in the early morning. She is incredibly happy in the morning, just like her brother. She likes to wake up early but has no problem taking an early morning nap most mornings so that I can get an extra hour of sleep if I need it. Co sleeping is working well for us!