Morning, sleepy head. This is Cosleepy Dispatch #008, your field notes for the week of July 6, 2026.

I am in crunch mode over here. My final draft is due to the publisher on July 20! I feel a lot of pressure to get everything perfectly right (can you imagine the level of scrutiny on a book about bedsharing? 😱). But, for the first time, I'm also feeling a sense of relief. The finish line is finally in sight!

I hope your week is the opposite -- light, un-rushed, go with the flow, and gentle on you. Here's what I've gathered to get you started:

• 🥶 How I'm staying cool, but not too cool, while bedsharing
• 🖐️ The 3-second test to see if your mattress is too soft for bedsharing
• 🎁 Free resource: The At-Home Mattress Firmness Test
• 🙄 A couple rants to spur you on

Grab yourself a warm drink and start scrolling!

🧰 COSLEEPY TOOLBOX

How to beat the heat

This one is for our cosleepy parents in the northern hemisphere. Have you been waking up in a sweat, too? 🥵 I've been super uncomfortable many nights, especially when one or both boys join us during the night.

First, I tried a few different combinations of sheets and thin blankets. (Here are a few good ones from Amazon, and the ultimate if you can splurge.) One night, I tried no bedding at all, but I felt kind of vulnerable/exposed.

What ended up working the best was, surprisingly, my adult sleep sack! Without socks or any bedding, I've been much more comfortable!

(I have this kids' version on my wish list, too!)

Hot tip: On these hot nights, make sure either you or your child is wearing a layer of thin, breathable fabric. If you both sleep skin-to-skin, that will become sweaty very fast!

💬 COSLEEPY Q&A

The Cosleepy Press Test

Many of you have brought a juice carton, book, and ruler to your bed and used my PDF to test your mattress' firmness. It's a rite of passage!

But where is an even more basic place to start?

Recently I walked a cosleepy mom through this, as we began our six months working together. She lives in New York City and, on our very first call, she asked if the new "firm" memory foam mattress they just carried up three floors would be firm enough for bedsharing.

I asked her to bring her phone to the family bed so we could do the Cosleepy Press Test. 🖐️

Here's how it's done:

1. Crawl onto the family bed, exactly where you'll be lying as you bedshare with your baby.
2. Sit on your knees and lean forward, and put both of your open palms on the mattress. Be sure to put your weight onto your arms!
3. Count to three.
4. Sit back on your knees and relax, and look at the two spots where your hands were positioned.
5. Did your mattress immediately spring back to its original flat, level position? ...Or do you still see hand marks?

🫣

This, my friends, is the problem with bedsharing on memory foam. To give yours a more official test, go through my PDF below.

👀 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

A couple rants to spur you on

If you've deactivated your social accounts for this season (good girl!), I wanted to share two recent posts that you missed. You should be able to view them, even without logging in.

​This meme, in which I used the caption to share my story as a brand new mom (and vent a little bit about the Safe Sleep 7 guidelines 🙄).

​And this post that explains why the only time you hear about bedsharing in the media, it's in a negative light.