Cosleeping...

When I was pregnant, I was totally against the idea of cosleeping. It was mostly because I was afraid I'd roll over the baby in the middle of the night. I'm a pretty heavy sleeper and just imagined all sorts of catastrophe.

A few weeks in, and I began to understand the advantages of cosleeping. One night, I fell asleep while nursing Daphne. I had dozed off and was sitting upright with her tucked in my arms. When I awoke a few hours later, I was so upset with myself. I thought of all the bad things that could have happened. At the same time, my little one had fallen asleep and continued to sleep longer than if I had put her back in the Pack-N-Play. A few more nights of this continued, until I decided to try letting Daphne sleep with us.   

My husband was very supportive of the decision. He was working early mornings at the time, and Daphne would wake up every few hours throughout the night, in turn waking Kris up. When I started letting Daphne sleep in our bed, everyone slept through the night. (Another plus was that it allowed me to feed Daphne much easier in the middle of the night.) 

We continued to cosleep until Daphne was about three months old. While it was a great solution to the problem we were having at the time, my husband and I needed our bed back. Too many mornings I'd wake up and Daphne's diaper had leaked. There would be a big wet spot underneath her and I'd have to wash our bedding. At night, I couldn't cuddle with Kris because I'd have to hold onto the baby. She started kicking in her sleep, and I'd wake up with a foot in my gut. Then the fear of her rolling off the bed kicked in. I considered buying a rail to put on the side of our mattress, but ultimately decided to get her back into the Pack-N-Play.

Currently, Daphne still sleeps in our room. The Pack-N-Play is on my side of the bed. Most nights she sleeps on her own. There have been a few nights that I've cuddled her to sleep. She's been theething and it makes her super cranky. Sleeping next to Mama soothes her, so on really bad nights I'll let her sleep with me.

Cosleeping is something I never would have planned to do as a mother, but I'm actually glad we ended up trying it for a while. I feel comfortable, now, if I ever need to have Daphne sleep with me. I had a few sweet months of bonding with my baby girl, too.