Wanna make the baby sleep? Want hours of blissful, warm shut-eye without a squall?

Sleep with the baby.

Dr. James McKenna at the Sleep Laboratory at Notre Dame studies mother-baby sleeping. And as long as some safety precautions are followed, co-sleeping is safe. It allows both mother and baby to get the most sleep, and the most restful kind of sleep. It keeps baby from nightwaking.

Sleep with the baby.

Co-sleeping is the only way to plausibly maintain breastfeeding. Newborns need to eat every few hours; you can’t get up, sit in a rocker, feed the baby, put him back to sleep, and do it all over again. That sounds like a hellish spiral of sleep deprivation. Instead, lay down on your side with the baby next to you. Latch him onto your breast. Fall asleep. When he squirms, switch breasts. Continue.

Sleep with the baby.

You may think you can’t sleep with the baby. You may think you can’t sleep with something touching you, or that you’ll never wake up. They’ve proven nursing mothers are hyper-aware of where their infant is during sleep - they don’t overlay their babies. And if Marines can learn to sleep standing up, you can learn to sleep while cuddling a warm, snuffly baby. It might take a week or two, but you’ll learn.

Sleep with the baby.

You won’t have any bedtime screamfests. No cry-it-out, no shrieking for you. No pick up, put down misery. Just lay down next to baby, take out your breast or bottle, and nurse him to sleep. Eventually, you’ll be able to sneak away, leaving him in the bed. Then you can go about your adult evening. You can do this wherever you happen to be in the world with the same results - no vacation disruptions.

Sleep with the baby.

No, your precious child won’t be sleeping with you until college. When it’s time, get a bed, lay down in it, and pull them close to you. Stay there until they pass out. They may come into your bed in the middle of the night. You probably won’t mind. If you do, bribe them. They’ll stay in bed for a deluxe robot ninja blaster 3000. And eventually, they won’t even need you to lay with them.

Sleep with the baby.

People all over the world sleep with their babies. SIDS is practically nonexistent in those cultures. Most of them think it’s barbaric to put an infant in a separate crib, in a room away from his mother. They think it’s especially horrible to let an infant cry. It’s accepted that of course, you’ll sleep with your baby, because where else would the baby sleep?

Sleep with the baby.

Sometimes you’ll wish for your own space. Sometimes you’ll sleep contorted and wake up as one big crink. Sometimes you won’t be able to sleep and you’ll wish you did something, anything, except sleep with the baby, who snoozes innocently beside you.

Sleep with the baby.

Because one day, that baby will bring home Little League trophies. He’ll get zits and listen to tasteless pop music. He’ll come in brandishing his brand-new, terror-inducing driver’s license. Your baby will argue with you, and shout at you, and stomp and slam his door. You’ll worry about bad influences, about drinking and driving, about safe sex. The stakes will be so much higher. Now, today, your baby needs nothing more than you.

Sleep with the baby.