Our Dirty Little Secret

We are co-sleepers. All three of us- Henry, Rob, and I- share our bed at night. We never planned to do this. Rob was adamantly anti co-sleeping. I was indifferent, figuring we'd get some pattern down eventually when our baby came along.
I was breastfeeding our newborn every hour to 2 hours that first week and trying to prop us both up on a boppy while also attempting valiantly to stay awake to protect us both from the dreaded rolling over which might well end our tiny little Henry.
We were in bad shape after 2-3 weeks of this hourly waking. Two consecutive hours of sleep was something to be celebrated, but Rob and I were too exhausted to find any way to cheer that kind of luck. At one point, Rob decided that if Henry fell asleep lying on one of us, the other adult should stay awake and watch the sleeping pair so at least one person got decent sleep and Henry was not harmed. I was crying nightly purely from sleep exhaustion. Three AM is the hour that thoughts like "What have I done to myself and my life?!" cross your mind. It was miserable.
Days were tolerable, but nights were pure hell.
We would attempt to lay a sleeping baby with his belly full down in the co-sleeper and hope and pray (neither of us were religious before these torturous nights!!) that the H-man would stay asleep and give us just 2 hours of uninterrupted slumber. It would work for an hour or so.
One night, out of desperation and pure exhaustion, I just laid my boy on the side of me towards the outside of the bed, away from Rob. There he slept for THREE HOURS. The miracle was, so did I. He woke up fussing, I helped him reach his milk source and we both dozed back off. Then he slept for ANOTHER THREE HOURS. I was in heaven. Rob decided that morning that desparation had led us to a solution that appeared to work and I was so happy that we were in agreement. We were on the same page, and the arrangement meant we both felt rested in the morning. It was certainly less sleep than we were used to prior to Henry's joining us but far more than we'd had in his first month of life.
Every night since then, Henry has slept next to me. I have grown to love it. He is not a restless or noisy sleeper as I hear and read that some newborns are. He is peaceful and sleeps about three hours at a time. Some nights he sleeps four and a few times, we've gotten 5 to 5.5 hours of consecutive sleep!
Henry cuddles up to me in his sleep on his side with his head thrown back and his little butt sticking out. He sometimes reaches a hand out and rests it on my chest or my face. Rob often leans over me to check to make sure that his little buddy is OK. In the morning, I get up first and put Henry next to Rob while I get ready. Often Henry stays asleep and curls up next to his dad. This is Rob's favorite part of morning, perhaps of the whole day. He doesn't feel safe having Henry next to him during the heavy sleeping hours, but loves the morning visits. If awake, Henry is at his smiliest in the early hours. He is a morning person, quite the opposite of his mother.
Neither of us are in a hurry to transition Henry to his own crib or bedroom. Since we all sleep so soundly, it seems logical to continue what works. What I have learned is that co-sleeping is a way of life for some families. There are family beds, extended co-sleeping that includes multiple children and is part of attachment parenting.
We never meant to join a "movement". We never researched attachment parenting or intended to adopt the principals of some parenting trend. We just needed sleep.