Table 4 Themes and selected quotes

Co-Sleeping:

Subthemes:

 • Availability of resources

 • Breastfeeding

 • Convenience

Study ID 18 (18 months): “We’re bed sharing right now…I used to section her side of the bed off with a pillow. Like a little border pillow even up against the wall, because she would see if she would get up against the wall. And then I have a crib in my room for her, but I just—it needed a mattress. It was so I never got the mattress. And that was part of the reason why we just never—never did that.”

Study ID 13 (15 months): “He sleeps in his crib. And that’s the struggle because when I have to take him out of the crib and breastfeed him and put him back. There are times that he does sleep with us”

Study ID 15 (18 months): “He wouldn't go [to] bed. He would not go to sleep. And he would cry. So, we would get him out and lay him next to us…Not for that long! Not forever! Well I hope not. Maybe until he’s three. Three’s a good age.”

Study ID 4 (6 months): “Just, it’s not like she sleeps in the crib because I don’t fit, but first she falls asleep with me in my bed, and then when she is already asleep, I get up and I put her in her crib, and then she stays there.”

Middle of the Night Feeding

Subthemes:

 • Breastfeeding

 • Response to waking/ soothing with feeding (vs. self-soothing)

 • Feeding-to-sleep association

• Need for parent sleep

Study ID 13 (15 months): “I struggle at night because he likes to breastfeed. He sleeps a little bit, but I want to take that away from him because he doesn’t let me sleep sometimes. I want to take it away because he doesn’t let me sleep. He falls asleep and within two hours he wakes up and I breastfeed him some more, so he falls back asleep. Like that, he wakes up like four times in the middle of the night.”

Study ID 3 (15 months): “Sometimes I let her cry, but sometimes since my husband has to work, he wants to give her some milk so that she will go back to sleep. I tell him no, that he shouldn’t. She’ll get used to it. She will go back to sleep.”

Study ID 11 (9 months): “I try not to give her the milk, but sometimes she just cries. So, then I have to give her some so that she goes to sleep, but she doesn’t drink much. Like she only drinks a little bit, and it’s because she’s like antsy. So, we have to work with her on that so it doesn’t happen.”

Study ID 15 (18 months): “He'll wake up two hours into the night requesting his first bottle. He'll wake up around 3:00 and then around 4:00 or 5:00 wanting a bottle…I've been told several [times] by his doctor that he needs to get rid of the bottle, but I don't want him crying throughout the night wanting the bottle and not going back to sleep, so I just let him have it.”

Structured Sleep Habits

Subthemes:

 • Sleep Training

 • Bedtime Routine

 • Lack of structured Routine

 • Daytime sleep timing

Study ID 18 (18 months): “She always gets a surge of energy right before she gets tired; she usually takes her socks off. Like she just… that's how I know she's getting sleepy. [laughs] The socks start coming off, and she's gonna run around for like a few minutes and then at that point we start saying good night to everybody and go upstairs brush our teeth…And then put on some relaxing music, and make sure that's going. And then I just nurse her.”

Study ID 21 (13 months): “No, if he finishes the milk at night and still doesn't sleep, I don't give him more milk [inaudible] because I don't want him drinking more…because…I don't want him…the doctor said not to give him too much.”

Study ID 11 (9 months): “Sometimes my husband helps me. And well it’s more practical for him to soothe her because well she sees me, and she wants to feed…So, he helps me, he gets up, he starts cradling her, singing to her, and talking to her until she falls back to sleep.”

Study ID 3 (15 months): “Sometimes she also sleeps in the evening. I think that’s where I’m making a mistake, because people tell me that I shouldn’t let her sleep in the evening…That’s why she takes so long to sleep at night.”