My son is nearly 2 ½ years old and he still sleeps with me.
I was one of those moms who said, I will never let my baby get started sleeping
with me! But those long nights of nursing and rocking and crying … it is so
hard. I fell asleep more nights than I want to remember in my big recliner
chair. As comfy as it is for sitting in, I always woke up with a start, and a
big crook in my neck. Ouch. And after my 2 hour catnap the baby was ready to
nurse again, so the cycle continued.
Every once in awhile I began nursing baby L in bed,
sometimes moving him carefully into his makeshift bassinet or battery operated
glider afterward. But more often than not, we both fell asleep in bed. As time
went on, I came to realize, believe, know that he was supposed to be close
close close to me. He was a brand new human, who just days/weeks ago was living
inside my body. Of course he wanted and needed to be close to my body all the
time! I am home to him.
Now of course, he is a lot more grown up. But honestly I
don’t mind sleeping with him. He is the cutest guy in the world! There are a
few things I would love to change about the arrangement though.
Problem #1: He still wakes up and “bothers” me several times
throughout the night. For those of you who have had babies, you know that sleep
during pregnancy is hard, and sleep after that baby is born can be much more
scarce. I feel like I’ve been running on little/interrupted sleep now for three
years. I’m tired.
Problem #2: When I wake up and get out of bed, he usually
notices that I am gone within 1-15 minutes and comes out crying to find me and
bring me back to bed. This applies to nighttime, if I try to get up and do
laundry or watch a movie or something, and also to mornings when I need to get
ready for work. He notices that I am gone almost instantly. It makes it very
hard to get anything done.
The really, really, really exciting thing is … I think I
found a solution!!!! Check back tomorrow to confirm!
