I am sure that a lot of you have been blessed with good sleepers. I have not. I promise that I don’t think unkindly of you. My first baby was a great sleeper so I was blessed once. I guess twice is too much to ask for. Since day one Adeline has not slept. No word of a lie. In the hospital she was awake or slept for about 10 minutes at a time and cried. Finally, utterly exhausted from lack of sleep and recovering from a rather tough labor I took her into my hospital bed with me. SHE SLEPT FOR 2 HOURS!! It was heaven and just what I needed. I had no idea what I was in for. Upon arrival home from the hospital we placed Adeline in her bassinet-awake, her swing-awake on daddy’s chest-fast asleep. Fast forward two years later and Adeline still sleeps only when in our bed. promise you I have tried many other ways and this is the only way that any of us get sleep. I know that there are some people who think I am just giving in but I promise I am not. I have read every book and every parenting article out there and they have gotten me right back to the same cozy co-sleeping bed. This weekend we are going shopping for a king size bed!! I am sure that someone out there has a horrible sleeper. Please share your stories or tips. I am ready to once again try to reclaim our bed…
— Erika and Adeline
Adeline and daddy
3 comments
I couldn’t have read this at a better time!! Although I was lucky enough that Mia was a great sleeper as an infant 6-8 hours at a time in her bassinet or crib, but one night when she was awake with strep I brought her into my King size bed and she hasn’t been out of it since. Last night I tried to let her “cry it out” for 5 minutes and all it did was work her up into a frenzy so much that it took almost an hour to calm her back to sleep (in my bed of course). Being a working Mom, I find it so much easier to just bring her into bed with me when she wakes up in the middle of the night because it assures that we will both get some sleep.
My kid who never slept her first year now sleeps like the dead at 3. I’m not kidding, if she falls asleep in the car, I can pick her up, carry her in a store, do my errand, put her back in the car asleep, go home, carry her in still asleep…. it is ridiculous.
We co-slept for everyone’s sanity, and the king bed was really helpful so no one felt squished. Then she did the toddler bed thing, but she’d get up and come join us at about 4am every night. Now, after we recently moved, we had the space to put a full-sized bed in her room, so we put her to bed in there and lie down with her briefly until she is asleep or almost asleep. She stays there all night, but we go in if she wakes and can’t get resettled on her own. Sometimes we fall asleep in there doing that, but oh well. She is no longer visiting our bed. I think she needed a “real” bed to finally make the transition, plus the natural changes in sleeping that come with age. I kind of miss the snuggles, but the space is nice too. It will come!
Erika, I swear we live parallel lives. My 2 boys were great sleepers! They never slept in bed with us. And then came Madeline. Not only was she our only planned child, she was the first baby that we were able to make her a gorgeous bedroom because we finally owned our own home!! We painted her room a pink called, “Fairest of them All” Her room was the most gorgeous room in our whole house. She NEVER slept in it!! I mean NEVER! Not even as much as a nap! FAST FORWARD 2 years (I’m quoting you) She was still sleeping in our bed! So last Spring when she was 2 1/2, we decided to redo every bedroom in our house so we could move her into the Master Bedroom, which was ours, with her brother and the bunk beds. Long story short, my husband painted over the once pink walls a honey color….I cried….And at first we had to let her fall asleep in our bed and move her into hers once she was asleep. It took some time but eventually she came to sleep in her own bed. She was just about 3 and the next big step was to get rid of her binky…thats another story in itself….Every child is different! I think my husband was more traumatized than she was moving out off our bed! But I was done with sleeping on the couch!!