Baby Cots -- yes or no?

When you are pregnant with your FIRST child, you'd want the ideal baby situation where he/she sleeps in the baby cot and you and hubby snooze on the bed. Yes, like that's going to happen.. when baby breastfeed it's much easier to feed on the bed bla.bla.bla.

I beg to differ. It takes a lot of effort and commitment to train your child to feel comfortable and secure in the baby cot, and you have to instill that security the moment baby is born. A lot of 'failures' happen because baby gets clingy during the night, and resorting to mom not placimg baby in the cot at all.

Of course, my situation is entirely different. I had two babies, so one had to be in baby cot and the other with me. There were many restless, sleepless nights which we endured, but eventually baby got the hang of it. Give him/her 6 months.

Babies won't sleep the whole night in the cot, they very much prefer the warmth of their mothers. But it gets very tiring sometimes when you are sleeping with them and you can't move and inch, so I made sure I get some free time on the bed for at least 2-3 hours. The schedule for baby cots which worked for me was:

Birth till 6 months
8pm -10pm : Baby cot, woke up for milk
10pm - 1am : Cuddle, a lot of coaxing
1am - 3am : Cuddle and on/off baby cot, woke up for milk
3am - 5am : Cuddle
5am - 730am : Baby cot
730 am : Ready to hit the day

6 months till about 15 months
8pm -10pm : Baby cot, woke up for milk
10pm - 1am : Baby cot
1am-3am : Milk and cuddle
3am-5am : Baby cot on and off
5am - 8am : Baby cot

15 months till now (23 months)
9pm - 730am : Baby cot (sometimes wakes up for milk once). Most of the time in baby cot, sometimes gets anxious so we would cuddle, but afterwards all ok.

Training has to be participated by ALL parties... including husbands and parents in law (in case they live together). Most babies who are fully breastfeeding have an inclination to feed all night long, this is probably because they are still hungry.

Date nites, if only we get any

We are the busy parents who don't quite do date nights.Here's a pic of me and Papalove at a wedding early this year. We NEVER go out without our babies, as much as we trust our maids on keeping them safe even at night, we don't want to burden them with the overwhelming experience. There will always be another family member around in cases where we HAD to be away at night, like this wedding we went to. It's always one of my sisters who would come and babysit .. the babies and the maids.

I think date nights are good, unless you spend every single moment worrying about your babies (which we will be). I suppose I really don't mind postponing all of our date nights until the babies are much bigger.

Papalove gets a lot of night outs, usually on business meetings or business brainstorm sessions at the local Devi's Corner. I get some occasional nites (probably 1-2 now since kids were born bahahahaah) with her girlfriends. I schedule meet up with friends (very very often) during the day, they also have young babies so it's a mutual understanding. We go out a lot at night, usually in big crowds at fun places, so I don't really feel deprived of the real world, in case some are wondering LOL.

But date nights... we just have to leave it off for a few years from now... ;)