I'M A CO-SLEEPER!!! :\
Prior to little Maddie-boo being born, I thought to myself
"I will never co-sleep with my child, that is soooo dangerous"
And to be quite honest, I do agree. It is dangerous and it's definitely not for everyone.
During Maddie's first couple of weeks of life I had her sleeping on a large square coffee table (that we so not conveniently moved into our bedroom) inside her "nap nanny" (really great invention by the way - they should totally make these in adult sizes) which she absolutely loved. We set her in that thing and BAM she was out like a fat kid in dodgeball. The one thing that was okay about this situation is that I was pumping and bottle feeding at the time so physically getting up out of bed wasn't necessarily a "chore" since I had to get up and do my whole routine anyway. But as my nipples toughened (TMI sorry!) and breast feeding became significantly easier I slowly integrated her into our king size bed.
So that brings me to our sleeping patterns now....the hubs is only sleeping with us 3 out of 7 nights a week as his work shift is 8pm to 6am. So honestly sharing a King size bed with a baby and one adult is not that bad, right?!?! Either way she has one entire side to herself and I have the other. When she wakes up (which is anywhere between every 3-5 hours) I just pull her snug to my chest and she eats then falls back asleep and I plop her back on her side of the bed. To be quite honest with the whole internet world out there...I love it! I feel so close to her and I feel like she can really depend on me and my husband as parents. The bonding is incredible and I don't know if I ever want her to sleep by herself. (over protective first time mother?! Yup, that's me and I'm proud of it!)
The hard situation is when my husband is home and we are all sharing a bed together. He builds this kind of "wall o' pillows" to barricade himself off from us, to each their own, and he feels safe this way. Her and I share a little over 1/2 the bed. I sleep a little less soundly, but that's okay. As long as she is comfortable, snug and warm next to me - I don't mind.
Bottom line is this people...
My daughter is my world. Everything I do from work to sleep to all the little things in between is for her! I would never intentionally put her in harms way and I weigh the pros and cons of every situation. I feel like emotionally the co-sleeping is great opportunity to bond with my little baby girl and having that physical separation from her at this age would be devastating (more for me than her). So my mind has changed. I'm a pro-co-sleeper now.
We predominantly co-slept until Carter was 6 months old.. and I swore I'd be sleeping in his college dorm room with him. And even now? When he wakes up in his crib at 5am? The hubsand goes and gets him and brings him back into bed with us for a couple more hours of shuteye. It's all about survival, Mama!! I love co-sleeping.. Love, love, love! They're the best snugglers!
ReplyDeleteI love this! We are totally co-sleepers. For me, it is such a cozy way to sleep. I love cuddling up in between my baby and my husband. We keep thinking about putting Gus in his own bed, but the answer is always "Maybe next month!"
ReplyDeleteLove it Kirsten! We have loved co-sleeping. And especially now that he is so so active, it is some of the only calm cuddle time we get with our little guy, along with breastfeeding. We just set up his crib as a side-car to our bed and slowly plan on getting him used to it (but it probably won't until we have a 2nd that he moves). Keep up the good work momma!
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