Hawthor has a great post on the politics of the Family Bed.
Go Here to read it.
We used a crib for our first daughter, until she was two and then the fighting began over the family bed. (Fights between my husband and I about how to handle nightime parenting) By the time I had our third we just pushed two large queen size beds together in one bedroom and tried to get as much sleep as we could. As our children have grown and matured, they have moved into their own rooms and beds and at five, Ben, our youngest, usually starts out in our bed and then we move him into the boys room when he falls asleep.
I remember thinking that I would never get these children out of our room at night, but each child has gradually matured to where they feel comfortable alone at night. We got rid of the crib 15 years ago and I only use a cradle for our newborns, right next to my bed. I think the biggest thing that has changed for Paul and I over the years is the understanding of how quickly the time passes with our babes and toddlers. When our oldest children were little, it felt like they would never mature, but now that life is speeding up, we find ourselves grasping for those sacred moments of connection with our youngest son; nursing, rocking, singing, and soothing to sleep. We both understand that sooner than later it will all be over and he won’t need us as much, as he follows in his siblings footsteps and grows up.
I love the book Nightime Parenting by Dr. Sears. It really made sense to me when I read it.
Hawthor also has a funny comic attached to this story. Go Here to see it.
Jenny Hatch

From Hawthors Blog Post:
“The Chicago Infant Mortality Study reveals that Breastfeeding Infants have 1/5th the Rate of SIDS. They report a nearly doubled SIDS rate for cosleeping, but this study does not remove the powerful effect of smoking parents from their statistic. When other studies remove this behavior, they find the remaining infants enjoy a greatly lower rate of SIDS for cosleeping versus isolated crib sleeping.There are two kinds of cosleeping, that conscious decision made by highly attentive parents, and that coming from factors such as fatigue from partying or drinking. When sofa sleeping and wedging dangers are also removed, the family bed shines as safest.
Number of U.S. births year 2000: 4,058,814
Total infant deaths year 2000: 28,411
Age birth to 1 year. (6.9 per thousand)
Number SIDS deaths year 2000: 2,523
Mostly in cribs.
Defined as death with unexplained cause, birth to 1 year.
Total suffocation deaths year 2000: 1,000
Number of crib-related “accidents”/yr: 50
Number of playpen-related deaths/yr: 16
Number deaths/yr attributed to overlying: 19 Most are only “suspected.”
Number of babies (0-2) dying in night fires/yr: 230 Many of which may have been retrievable if next to parent, not in another room of home. This is true for abductions and other night dangers as well.
Number of deaths/yr in adult beds reported as entrapment/suffocation between bed and wall, headboard, or other furniture, on waterbed, in headboard railings, or tangled in bedding: 18 With side-rail: 1 That’s 19 of the 60.
Number of deaths/yr reported as suffocation of unknown cause in adult bed: 13 These would be SIDS if in a crib. Remember, these do not necessarily involve cosleeping.
Number of deaths/yr in adult beds from prone sleeping: 5 Again, these are considered SIDS in cribs, and they are preventable in adult beds, as in cribs.
4/yr died not from falling out of adult bed, but from suffocating (pile of clothes, plastic bag) or other danger (such as drowning) after falling out.
13% of U.S. infants are routinely cosleeping with nearly 50% sharing bed for part of the nights. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development 2000 Survey,
Number of U.S. infant lives that could be saved per year by exclusive/extended breastfeeding: 9,000 Exclusive/extended breastfeeding cuts SIDS risk and cuts overall infant death risk in half.
Why does our nation rank only 42nd in infant survival?* in the industrialized world (some non-reporting nations are thought to rank better than us as well)? Our difference from the best-ranking nations is a high predominance of formula feeding, isolated sleep, and medical intervention. The highest cosleeping/ breastfeeding nations rank with half our overall infant death rate (and negligable SIDS rates). Remember we rank #1 in medical intervention.”