Reposted from a comment on another's locked post:
I thought co-sleeping was kind of an affected hippie thing to do before I had kids. Then Casper wouldn't sleep unless being held at about 2 months, and we decided that instead of dozing semi-upright on the futon in her room holding her, we might get more sleep lying down in a bed holding her. mr. flea was very concerned about safety, but I actually still slept rather badly with her in the bed, as I was hyper-aware of her presence and woke at every snort. We moved her out to a crib at about 9 months, when she was waking wanting to nurse every hour, and then spent the next year traipsing down the hall to comfort her in the wee hours. At about 21 months we moved her to a double bed futon on the floor and one of us would lie with her until she fell asleep. For most of the year she was 2 (much of which I was pregnant) mr. flea actually spent the whole night in her bed, since he'd fall asleep trying to get her to sleep. At about 3.5 she moved to a single bed and now nearly always sleeps through by herself.
We did try the cry-it-out method with Casper on several occasions (ages 9 months-2 years). It was not a good solution for us - she was stubborn and angry, and I was in agony.
With Dillo I decided to co-sleep from the get-go, and I also got him to nurse lying down by about 3 weeks (instead of 4 months with Casper). We kept a pack n play in our bedroom and occasionally he'd go to sleep in that. We moved him out to a crib down the hall at 12 months and mr. flea would ferry him back to nurse in our bed. He's had phases where he's slept nearly through 4 nights out of 7 (slept in his crib until 5am, then nursed in our bed and back to sleep in our bed) and phases, like now, when he spends most of the night in our bed. When we move next week we'll start the futon-on-the-floor thing with him; I hope we are able by the time he's 3 to have him on the lower bunk of Casper's bunk bed.
My philosophy now, and the advice I give new parents is, to try things until you find a sleep solution that gets the most sleep for everyone in the family, and to hell with what other people think. In my house, on any given night I, mr. flea, or Casper may be sleeping on the couch (Casper likes to sleep out there, or sometimes she'll build a nest of pillows in the living room and want to sleep there!), Dillo may be in the crib or in my bed, and I may be sleeping at the foot of my bed because Dillo is too sprawly. I don't tend to talk much about sleeping arrangements to work people, but have found my parenting friends to be non-judgmental. My mother hates the fact that we co-sleep; she considers it a sign of parental weakness and feels it reflects an inability to set boundaries. She sends me articles from the New York Times Style section about co-sleeping with snarky little notes and the addendum "ha ha this is meant as a joke. Please do not be offended."
I am very tired, and probably would have more seriously considered having a third child (I am strongly trending no right now) if my kids had slept through the night in their own cribs by 6 months. But this was the only way to muddle through things that I found I was able to manage. I do think the children's sleep was affected by the fact that I was exclusively breastfeeding and working full time; they wanted and needed (for food) to be close to me in the night when they were infants. Also, I think that humans have a natural tendency to co-sleep - one that, unfortunately, was mostly trained out of me, so I don't find co-sleeping restful.
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