We are a co sleeping family. It was a simple choice for my DH & I. His parents did it when he was young and it seemed so natural to me. I was up every hour at night with my son making sure he was still breathing! Having him close made me feel better and made nighttime nursing so simple!
Oddly enough, co sleeping is a strange secret society. No handshake, but it is not talked about openly. In whispers I found that more people co sleep than I ever imagined! After our pediatrician gave us all the general warnings, she admitted that she also practiced co sleeping. I found this experience repeated over and over with friends and acquaintances. Yes, some of our friends find this crazy, but it works for us.
Fast forward to today... my baby girl has chosen to be more of a crib sleeper. She sleeps better in the early evening, but generally migrates back into our bed for nursing and we wake up with smiles in the morning.
Last night she showed her first preference. As I took her upstairs she began crying as I entered her room. She was babbling and pointing towards our room. I tried my best to snuggle down with her, but even as she nurses she migrates around the bed. Not terribly fun! At one point both her and my toddler were giggling and poking each other. Grrr...
So my current problem? I am trying to teach her how to fall asleep. I want to respect her request to join the family bed, but we also need to get some sleep! This process took quite a while with my son, but now the bed is a little smaller. My son is close to needing his own "big boy bed", but not quite. I think by his birthday we will have one set up at the foot of our bed. But, that is a few months away. I don't have time to keep laying her down and sing her to sleep. So far my DH threw out the idea of living room camping with our son. I know my son would love that.
Has anyone had any experience with this? Any suggestions? I would love to hear if there are any other co sleepers our there!
I have no advice, but you are not alone! We have been trying to transition our 2 year old out of our bed for a while now, but have had no luck at all. She makes it a day or two, but then is right back in our bed. We do have her crib side carred to our bed, so it does give us a little more room though ;)
ReplyDeleteI'd prob put the twin bed at the end of your bed sooner than in a few months for his bday. We never co-slept with our girls but they did spend some time in a sleeping bag on the floor beside my bed {we just had a double sized bed at the time}. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice. Yes, we are going to take the mattress from our current (unused) crib and put it in our bedroom. We will see how that goes!
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