Our bassinet is designed for just that sidecar arrangement -- though the bassinet mattress is a few inches lower than the bed so she can't roll out of it, which also means I have to sit up to bring her into our bed to nurse. For a few nights Kyle and I switched sides, on the theory that Little Bear wasn't sleeping soundly because she could smell my milk... but it didn't make any difference. As for a reassuring touch, that makes sense to me, but it only seems to wake her up more. We'll just keep trying putting her to bed in the bassinet every night until it takes.

I haven't had occasion to think much about sleep-deprivation in older kids [yet], but that research seems like a no-brainer to me. I know what I feel like when I don't get enough sleep night after night! It's another good reason for homeschooling. The trick would be to actually get kids to go to sleep at a reasonable bedtime... but again, I know how hard that is, especially once they're old enough for the Internet to be a distraction. I'm going to have to discipline myself before I can reasonable ask my daughter to limit her time online.

I'm going to have a really hard time enforcing the "no reading under the covers with a flashlight until all hours" rule -- how can school be more important than whatever book is keeping the kid up at night?