Sleeping Babies

 I am a moderator on a Facebook group that supports and gives information on co-sleeping with your baby.   I swore that I would never have a baby sleep in our bed.  But I have learned, never say never.

Courtney, my first born baby, was a sweet baby. The first months of getting up and nursing her in the night were really sweet.   I relished those middle of the night feedings.   There was no noise, no TV or radio.  Nobody was up except me and my baby.  She would nurse, burp and go back to sleep, and back into her crib.  Somewhere around 4 months she started to sleep through the night.   Prefect baby!

We left Thailand when Courtney was around 4 months old.  In the hotels we stayed in on the way home, we had a crib brought in for her.  In Oregon, we stayed at my aunt and uncle's house where we made a nice, cozy bed for her using a dresser drawer.

Somewhere around nine months old, Courtney started needing to nurse in the night again.  I would go into her room, sit and nurse her back to sleep, and try to get her to go back to her crib.  But, no matter how gentle and careful I was, the second I set her down she would start to cry.  I would get Nick up and if I handed her to Nick after nursing her to sleep, he could lay her down.  It was separating from me that was hard.

Nick was working and had to get up early every day to get to work.  Shortly after we started this routine, Nick told me that he needed to sleep and that I should just bring Courtney into bed with us.  We did bring her into our bed.  And I lay awake worrying that I was doing something wrong.

Around that time I was attending La Leche League meetings.  I brought home a book from one of the meetings that changed my life.  The book was The Family Bed.  It explained that throughout time babies have slept with their parents.  It all made sense. I was so relieved.  We were alright.

Ever after that, all of our babies slept with us.  For years.  For as long as they needed.

Getting back to the group that I am a moderator on.  So many of the moms are really worried about sleeping with their babies.  There is ever a book (published by La Leche League) that has all of the "rules" and guidance on how to sleep safely with your baby.  

I guess it's a good thing in these litigious times to have such a manual so nobody says that LLL told them to this or that.  It's in the book.

But to me, the sad thing is how totally stressed new parents are.  About everything.  I think that at least a part of it because moms go back to work when their babies are quite young.  So there is all of the stress to get everything right because there won't be a second chance.  There's no real time to just learn your baby and learn yourself as a parent.

What prompted me to write this is that I posted a picture of Courtney and Morgan sleeping together- like a couple of puppies- around the ages of 2 nd 5.  I commented that they are now 41 and 44 and never sleep with me and in fact I only see them a couple of times a year.

Over 2,000 people "likes" that picture and many of them commented.  

I texted the picture to Courtney and told her about it.  She said that Morgan just happened to be visiting her.  Courtney and Morgan reenacted the pose and Kim, Morgan's wife took a picture.  I shared that on  Facebook too.

I sure love my babies!