Blogging with baby on my lap

This blog title is appropriate in multiple ways.  Most obvious, of course, is that I'm typing this blog while Lydia sleeps across my legs.  Fortunately, I've placed her in such a way that I can type with both hands, so I can finish this blog more quickly.  The title is also indicative of what I think is a likely problem with my childrearing, namely that Lydia is permanently attached to me, and won't sleep well anywhere except on me or someone else.  I'm still trying to decide if this is a bad thing or a good thing.  I've mentioned Dr. Sears before, and he's a big proponent of attachment parenting--wearing baby, carrying baby, breastfeeding on demand, sleeping in bed with baby.  In many ways, I think this is the correct way to parent.  It makes perfect sense, from an evolutionary standpoint.  Apes carry their babies wherever they go, and native women have always carried their babies in slings while they perform their day-to-day tasks.  I also think it's much better for babies to be carried in slings than to be placed alone in baby chairs or swings.  Because I want to maintain my milk supply when I get back to work, breastfeeding whenever Lydia seems hungry seems like a great idea, and I want to continue it.  It's really the sleeping that's the problem...

We have been co-sleeping.  I know it's a subject of considerable controversy.  The Academy of Pediatrics discourages it, while Dr Sears and many others recommend it.  We certainly didn't plan on it.  Lydia was supposed to sleep in her co-sleeper, a little bassinet securely attached to my side of the bed.  It just didn't work that well.  She fussed a lot in the co-sleeper, and none of us got any rest.  After about a week, we put her carseat in the cosleeper, and she slept in that.  Eventually I got so tired that I'd fall asleep while she was nursing, and would only wake up when 4 or 5 hours had passed.  I also became attached to sleeping with her.  It's wonderful to have her little body pressed up against me and to have her little head resting in the crook of my arm.  Eventually I stopped making any effort to put her in the co-sleeper.  I think I need to start working on this again.  I think it's much better that she have her own defined sleeping space.  Right now, she doesn't really have a defined nap space, and I don't think it's safe to put her in our bed alone to sleep.  Also, it's important for couples to have some baby-free time--as Don says, right now we really don't need to worry about birth control.  So my new goal is to try to get her into the co-sleeper again for naps and at night.  Fingers crossed...