On co-sleeping
We aren’t co-sleepers. And I have no opinion on those who are. Okay. That is a lie. I think y’all are crazy but only because I like my sleep and I’ve found co-sleeping isn’t conducive to actual sleep for my family. My children only sleep with us if one of them is extremely sick. I tried to let Sabrina sleep with me just for fun once while Steve was out of town. She stayed up all night petting my hair and arm and reassuring me that if I needed her, she was right there. I kicked her out around 3am. But if co-sleeping works for you? Fabulous.
On our very long trip home from Pittsburgh, we were forced to stop for the night due to snow and ice and southerners not understanding how salt can help that situation. The hotel only had with 2 double beds so Steve and I decided we would each take a girl and sleep that way. I will say this, snuggling into bed with Tessa and watching her fall asleep? So freaking cute. Like watching a cute, cuddly tiger cub. Actually trying to sleep with her? Not so cute. Like watching that cute, cuddly tiger cub grow into a full sized hungry tiger that proceeded to rip my arm off and eat it in front of me.
Maybe I exaggerate. A little. But wow, not a restful night. Tessa may be small but child can take up a bed like no one’s business. And she snores, snorts, and yells out in her sleep. Plus she kicks and pokes (managing to land in my eye more times than seems statistically possible if it was truly random). Every time I rolled over, she would yell out “MOMMY!” in her sleep. So I was clinging to the edge, trying not to move. And I discovered Sabrina grinds her teeth loudly enough to wake me up from across the room.
That night cemented the fact that we are not a co-sleeping family. The girls spend a lot of time in our bed reading and playing with us. But when it is lights out? Everyone goes to her own room.
Olivia does the same thing. we don’t co-sleep either, but on occasion in hotels, mike and i fight over who gets to sleep with kevin.
Omg, Elizabeth sleeps with me (who’s bright idea was that???) and she takes up the whole queen sized bed, and wiggles and kicks me all night long. Yawn….
We too have our own beds, own rooms………it works for us. Cassie slept with us out of desperation when she was a baby. Needless to say that it killed any chance her brother and sister ever had.
Now, I am struggling to have a co-sleeper three nights a week (my husband) as I have grown very accustomed to my own bed!!
That. Sounds. Awful. Alice co-slept for years mostly because she excelled at it. Didn’t move. Didn’t grind. Slept peacefully through the night with no weird noises, no excessive movement. Really, better than an ex who wanted to snuggle all. dang. night. long. Co-sleeping worked for us but only because Alice was insanely good at it ; ) No way would it have happened with a kid who did what you describe or what a friend described as the clock move–rotating 360 degrees every hour. But having said that, now that she is five she is in her own bed!
I always said I’d NEVER EVER sleep with my child. Here I am, sleeping with her every……single…….night. I had to, at one time, if I wanted to get some sleep. Hanging over the crib just wasn’t cutting it. She does more damage to the blankets so I am up sometimes remaking the bed as she sleeps peacefully. Sometimes she yells, cries, calls me and grinds her teeth. Recently she has become an octopus climbing on top of me because next to me is not close enough. She is so snuggly though that it’s worth it but one of these days…….
Yep, I too believed we were not a co-sleeping family, and apparently Child #1 got the memo and was ok with it. Child #2 either doesn’t know how to read or is ignoring the memo, bc as of a month ago, she MUST be in my bed to fall asleep (I move her out once she falls asleep and she sleeps through the night in her crib) – I’ve tried everything – putting her to bed later, earlier, letting her cry it out (my gosh, that child is the most stubborn person on the face of this earth), going in at intervals to reassure, you name it, I’ve tried it. So now, I swallow my tongue and just do what’s easiest for the time being… Sigh.
You are SO funny! 🙂 But I have the same kid…and here we are venturing on to vacation next week…and I will be sleeping with that girl again! Same as Tessa…she takes up MORE than 3/4 of the bed and kicks and pokes and all of that stuff! I too, could NEVER be a co-sleeper! Even when my kids were sick I would set up the air mattress and camp out in their room for the night…it was better me being on the floor for a few days than having a kid think they can come in my bed and disrupt my sleep! 🙂 And now that they are older, when they are sick, we have a slumber party in the living room…two couches…room for one adult and one kid – perfect! (and I STILL get the bed all to myself…well…except for the husband that snores as loud as a chain saw!) ðŸ™
We did quasi co-sleeping with Emily for about 18-20 months. She would fall asleep in bed with me and then I would move her to her own room. Sometimes though she would wake up a couple hours later and come back and get in bed with me. I didn’t mind too much until she decided the best way to sleep was horizontally across the bed with her head wedged into my rib cage. That ended that.
With Colleen, she is a bad sleeper, and just the last 3 weeks has decided that it is ok to sleep more than 2 hours in a row. But for months 3-6ish, she would go to her room until the first time she woke up, and then spent the rest of the night in bed with me. I was too tired to keep getting up and putting her back. So it was more co-sleep out of laziness. If we have to go to something like what Emily did, i’m not sure how that would work, since Em stays up later and needs me then. i hope Colleen just likes her own bed as much as i do. LOL!