Hi D Ho and welcome to my pregnancy update for week 36. At this stage baby weighs about 6 Lbs and is about the size of a head of romaine lettuce. Baby must be growing plenty of hair because a bottle of gaviscon has become a permeant feature in my handbag along with another huge bottle beside my bed that I’m working my way through nicely. I had a little bit of heartburn with little man but nothing compared to this pregnancy. Little man had a lot of hair when he was born so I’m slightly worried that I might give birth to a gorilla this time 🙂

Bump wise I’m still expanding, putting on about 1 Lb a week which is pretty standard at this stage, I would have liked to keep it a little lower but I’m sooo hungry all the time now and I’m sure finishing work and bootcamp hasn’t helped keep the pounds down.

This week I’ve been trying to get organised with everything I need for my hospital bags and things we need to have straight away when baby comes home. One of the main differences I am planning with baby number two is to use a co-sleeper. When we brought Little Man home he slept in a moses basket beside our bed at night. Those nights were so hard at the beginning and I was so sore from the c-section that it killed me to lean over and pick him up out of the moses basket. Most of the time poor Dear Husband (DH) used to have to get out of bed and come around to my side to pick up little man and hand him to me.

I had never really thought of co-sleeping originally but it was actually the midwives in the hospital who started me off. They would put little man in bed with me at night and advised when we got home to put a rolled up towel under the edge of our fitted sheet to create a raised edge on the bed. This was good advice but I just didn’t really have the confidence to sleep like this with baby on a regular basis at the beginning.

Co-sleeping and breastfeeding really go hand in hand, the best way I’ve heard it described is that a breastfed baby will stay safely beside your boobs like a heat seeking missile looking for their target and will not slip down under the covers of your bed like a formula fed baby can.

There is often a misconception that co-sleeping is dangerous however you can co-sleep safely once you follow some rules known as the safe sleep 7 (Note this information has been taken from the La Leche League Website – check them out for even more info on this subject and on breastfeeding in general):

Mother is:
1. A non-smoker
2. Sober – no alcohol or medication which could make her drowsy
3. Breastfeeding

Baby is:
4. Healthy
5. On their back
6. Lightly dressed and unswaddled

And they:
7. Share a safe surface

By following these rules the baby’s risk of SIDS is no greater than being in a crib, and any breathing hazards have been hugely reduced. See infographic below – it even comes with a handy rhyme sang to the tune of row row row your boat to help you remember the 7 rules.

I figured this time around an actual co-sleeper cot attached to our bed could be the best option for us, this way we gain extra bed space so I won’t be worried about baby falling out over the edge. Little Man can still jump in-between DH and I in the morning and baby will have a safe space the other side of me while we have an unruly toddler in the bed.

I did a lot of looking around at co-sleepers available on the market but most are so small  (about the size of a standard moses basket) that I was worried baby would outgrow it too quickly. They are also crazy expensive around €250 – €400 by the time you include a mattress so I looked around for other options and found that some people had done great jobs converting simple Ikea cots into beautiful co-sleepers.

So this week we we headed to ikea to pick up the cot we will use as our co-sleeper. While we were there we ended up getting a little carried away with ourselves getting a new wardrobe and chest of drawers for Little Mans room and picking up way too many little bits and bobs that we didn’t really need couldn’t live without.

Pregnancy Update 36 – Ikea

Pregnancy Update 36 – Ikea

Pregnancy Update 36 – Ikea

Pregnancy Update 36 – Ikea

Pregnancy Update 36 – Ikea

Pregnancy Update 36 – Ikea

Making the ikea co-cleeper is really easy, we picked up the Sniglar Cot for €49 and the Vyssa Skont mattress for €55. DH made up the cot with only 3 sides attached – like you would if you were to use it as a toddler bed.

Pregnancy Update Week 36 – Co-Sleeper

Pregnancy Update Week 36 – Co-Sleeper

Pregnancy Update Week 36 – Co-Sleeper

Its important to get the height of the cot mattress to match the height of the bed mattress so we were prepared to drill holes in cot frame to make sure we could set it to the correct height. Luckily it turned out to be a pretty good match height wise using the preset height setting of the cot so no extra intervention was needed. Next we got some bungee cords from our local hardware store and used these to connect the cot to the side of our bed – its pretty solid now – nothings going to budge this cot.

Pregnancy Update Week 36 – Co-sleeper

Pregnancy Update Week 36 – Co-sleeper

Pregnancy Update Week 36 – Co-sleeper

Finally we needed to close the gap between the cot mattress and our bed mattress, we pushed the cot mattress right up beside ours and used a pool noodle to seal the gap created at the opposite end. With the end of the pool noodle cut off and sheets on the cot it looks like it was custom made for us and all for only around €110.

Pregnancy Update Week 36 – Co-sleeper

Pregnancy Update Week 36 – Co-sleeper

Pregnancy Update Week 36 – Co-sleeper

Little Man has had loads of fun jumping around the new cot so its been well tested in advance of babies arrival. 

(Please note this is not a sponsored post).

So thats my pregnancy update for week 36, have any of you used a co-sleeper before? Id love to hear how you got on with it.