Okay, we don’t do it every night, but when I have gotten up already a half dozen times and it is only 4 in the morning- I know I need sleep. Sometimes the only way to get it is to co-sleep.
I have said before that I don’t enjoy co-sleeping, and at that time I really didn’t, but things change pretty quickly when you’re a parent and a lot of things I thought I was once against I find myself doing regularly.
The point of parenting is to learn. I went in there, guns drawn, thinking that I knew what I was doing… and boy was I ever wrong. I am thankful that I was informed and thought I knew everything, because at least I had a base line to go off of.
Now I am really rethinking co-sleeping and I see its benefits, especially as a breastfeeding mom. Although I couldn’t be able to do it full-time because sometimes I just need a good sprawled-out sleep.
With Monster in the bed, he always cuddles right up to me, so I feel like I can’t roll over. He sleeps in the middle, because who really wants their kid to fall off the three-foot-high bed in the middle of the night, and he ends up taking up more room than my partner and I together!
To top it off, as the warm weather is approaching, I have learned that my kid sweats just like his dad… So the little Monster becomes a sticky sweat ball I have to peel off of me in the morning.
But on nights where his teething pain is catching up with him, or he got a few needles earlier in the day, then yeah I let him sleep with us. I can’t say that I don’t enjoy it either. He is a little cuddle bug and who doesn’t love that.
So some nights he sleeps with us. We take strides to make sure he is okay, like not allowing it on days where anyone has a few drinks, or muscle relaxers, and everyone wakes up the next morning happier and better rested.
Unless he pees in my bed like he did last night, and I wake up to peed on clothes that I didn’t even pee on… Yay for 6 am sheet changes.
Do you co-sleep?
Phoenix
I used to Co sleep with kole. I remember the wet bed in the morning and everything lol. But it was always nice just to have that cuddle time every now and again. Mind you he slept sooooo much better when we did. I remember being kicked and punched in the face every two seconds!
Every once in a while it’s nice, just don’t tell an old lady, they will snap on you haha my grandmother freaked when I told her I Co slept kole.
I have co-slept with all 4 of my babies and I wouldn’t do it any other way. I am currently still co-sleeping with my youngest and I love it. We both get the sleep we need and he gets the closeness and security that he feels safe with. He is a very needy baby and won’t sleep if one of us isn’t close. I am enjoying it even more this time for the simple reason that he’s my last and I like the bonding we have with co-sleeping. He is also still exclusively breastfeeding (he won’t take any bottle even with breast milk) and wakes 3 times at night still so it’s just easier too
I never co-slept with my first born. He hated it so he has always slept on his own. My youngest on the other hand was in our bed from day one (that’s where he was born) He stayed with us for nine months in bed until we moved. I wasn’t 100% sure i wanted to co sleep but for us it was either no sleep at all or 3 hour stretches. I chose to take the sleep, so co sleeping it was. My husband wasn’t sure but in the end it all worked out, my youngest now sleeps wonderfully on his own but I do miss the cuddles.
I cosleep with all 3 kids some nights. My son weighs 75lbs, daughter 40 and baby 25. I don’t wake at all but my husbands jewels bear the brunt of their kicks. I wake up giggling at his pain at least once a week
My son has the habit of coming and sleeping in my bed at least twice a week when Dad is gone back to the US. I used to give him trouble, but as he’s gotten older and started sleep walking and such, I don’t put up a fuss at all. Eventually he’s going to outgrow the need to sleep in my room and I will miss it. He sleeps on his own most of the time but there are still some nights he will pop in for an hour or two.
When both my children were babies we coslept. I never understood the point in getting up and overstimulating myself minimizing my ability to fall back asleep after doing all the necessary nighttime routine so cosleeping we did!
We never fully coslept but we allowed my oldest in our bed anytime to make things easier as he was growing up. Now he still comes in if he wakes up scared, storms etc. My youngest never liked our bed and 1.5 years later has never slept with us!
I call our sleeping arrangement “bed hopping.” We never consciously co-slept, but it was so much easier to take him into bed with me when he was still nursing. And for the first few months he pretty much only slept if he was lying on my chest. As time passed, I was just as likely to crawl into his bed with him if he was having a rough night. He’s 8 now and always sleeps in “the big bed” with me when Daddy is away, and I sometimes crawl in with him if Daddy is home and snoring too loudly. It works for us, and I know I don’t have too much longer for these snuggly nights and mornings!