Co-sleeping

I have an 8 month old son and I have been co-sleeping with him since he was about 2 weeks old. It has been an amazing journey that started out purely to get some extra sleep. I am convinced that mother and child should not be separated at night, for the reasons I am listing below:

• It helps babies thrive! Edward eats just as much at night and spends longer at the breast, therefore getting more hind-milk, the fatty stuff (also good for brain development).

• It's the kindest thing to do. We often put Edward to bed earlier than us and sometimes he wakes up crying. During the evening we respond to him very quickly, but if this happened at night, it would be terrible, for all of us. This way I can respond to him quickly and appropriately.

• I have a huge problem with what feels like dumping Edward in a cot and leaving him there. Even with a baby monitor it will still feel like I am abandoning him. At the moment he wakes up a tiny bit and I feed him back to sleep, if he was in a different room, we would both have to wake up fully, which would mean we would both get less sleep. Unless we're willing to let him cry it out or force feed him food to fill him up, both of which we are not willing to do.
  

• Edward sleeps better. He sleeps lighter than I do, so if he wakes up, he knows he's not alone and goes back to sleep or has a feed. I'm sure we share similar sleep cycles as I often wake up at the same time as him. We sleep in harmony.

• I tend to stay close to Edward during the day, I don't see why I should parent him differently at night. We've chosen to follow the attachment parenting method and we're happy with this choice because it feels natural to us.
  

• It's good for my marriage. Yes I know that might sound strange, but because we all get a good nights sleep the house is a happier place to be.

• We are a happy family and very happy in our decision to co-sleep. Edward can decide when he wants to go to his big boy bed, I can assure you that he won't be sleeping with
  us when he is 15. Edward is the most contented boy I've ever met, so we must be doing something right!

• Marriage. Yes I know people must be thinking what about my marriage, it is fine thank you, as I said before Edward goes to bed early, so we get plenty of adult time alone.