Have you seen the movie the intern?  it’s really great – funny, sweet, entertaining… i can’t say enough good about it.  however, the particular bond i now have with this movie, isn’t because of how good the actual movie…but this scene.  This scene is shortly after Anne Hathaways character puts her daughter to bed, and then she crawls into bed.  This…right here.  THIS scene, is where my little tiny co-sleeping daughter asks “mama, where is their baby”.  it hadn’t really dawned on me before that she doesn’t realize that a lot of kids sleep in there own room.  sleeping with us is all she knows…well, kind of.

yes, there are numerous studies that explain the benefits of co-sleeping (and there are also numerous that debate said benefits)…but regardless, that is not how or why we have ended up here.

immi started out in her own little co-sleeper that was attached to the side of the bed.  and she was there for several months.  at this point i can’t remember when she grew out of it…but shortly after that, we moved her to her crib…in which i’d wake up once or twice a night to nurse, and then bright and early in the AM….this was fine, until I ruptured my achilles AND my husband was traveling for weeks at a time.  before he left, we moved the crib into our room, so all i had to do was stand up (on one leg) pick her up, and lay with her in bed to nurse… well, do you know how easy it is to nurse a baby to sleep and then just catch some Zzzz’s while your at it. yep… it was amazing!  i was getting decent sleep!  it became habit…she’d get put to bed in her crib, and then when she’d wake up between 4 or 5am…i’d bring her into bed with me and get just an hour or two more sleep.  well, fast forward to numerous viruses, fevers, nightmares, etc…and endless nursing…she ended up in bed with us more so than not… we went through phases of being in the crib, phases on being in the bed, round and round…then came the solidifier.  hubs going overseas for 3 months.  to help me sleep, and to help immi feel more secure, i just brought her into bed with me.  it really just came down to both of us getting more sleep.  there are other benefits that come with her sleeping with us.  let’s be real…i’m a working a mom… a lot of nights, i don’t get home until 7-7:30…that means a quick dinner and bed time.  co-sleeping allows us to squeeze in any extra morsel of time we can to be together.  we’re together when she falls asleep…and i’m right there to see her sweet groggy smile first thing in the morning –  and now here we are. co-sleeping.  so, i guess the moral of the story is that no matter your parenting philosophy, we all do what we gotta do.

hugs,

nikki