Co-sleeping
Last night my daughter fell asleep on top of me. Literally climbed on top of me, settled her little head into my neck and went fast to sleep.
I listened to the sound of her snoring. I felt her breathing against my own breathing. It is such a calm and peaceful feeling.
I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sadness. How much longer will this last?
She will be 3 years old soon.
When you tell people that you co-sleep…you always get one of two reactions. The one I can’t stand. The judgement. “Oh, I never did that!’ “You should start putting them in their own bed.” Try this, try that.
The truth is. I never planned on co-sleeping. In fact I never thought about it at all. Doing it or not doing it. It just happened.
When my daughter was around 6 to 7 months old, she would wake up 3 to 4 times a night. At the time, I was working. So I would get up, rock her back to sleep and then transfer her back to the crib. Then I would go back to sleep, and we would repeat this multiple times a night.
Clearly, it got realllllly exhausting.
So one night, I brought her into bed. She snuggled right up and went back to sleep. For the entire night.
She just wanted to be in the bed with us. If I put her back into the crib, she would wake up and cry all night. (Sure, I could have tried the “cry it out” method and just left her. But I physically could not listen to her crying, it would just give me anxiety and then I wasn’t going to sleep anyway!)
On the other hand, my son. I couldn’t get him to sleep with us even if I tried! He is just a totally different baby and always has been. Happy to go to bed in his crib, happy to have a bedtime, and happy to have the whole bed to himself! I would loveeeeee to sleep with him too but he loves his bedtime routine and I would never try to change it!
This is such a special bonding time. It’s something I look forward to every single day. Yes, some days I end up with my face against the wall because the second I move away from her, she inches closer. Yes, some days I have to sleep on the foot of the bed because she sleeps horizontally and I don’t dare move her.
Most days we snuggle up like perfect puzzle pieces. Most days she puts her little hands around my face just to make sure we are as close as possible. And most days she reaches her little hand into mine just to make sure I am still there. I know it won’t last forever. But it’s not ending tonight 🙂
