Strange bedfellows...

Admittedly, I've never been a big fan of co-sleeping. Maybe it's because I can be a bit claustrophobic at times and really like my space when I'm sleeping. Either way, both our kids have always slept in their cribs, in their rooms as babies.

Elijah hardly ever slept in our bed as a baby. For one thing he was not the greatest sleeper and we were always trying so hard to establish good sleep habits for him. Yeah, right, the kid didn't sleep through the night until he was almost one. Maybe we should have given it a shot! Oh well. At one point he really got so used to being in his own crib that he simply would not sleep with us in bed. A few times I thought it would be cute, on a random Saturday afternoon, to snuggle up with my baby and take a nap. Umm, no. Not Elijah. He would just end up fussing and crying until I took him back to his bed. Snuggle fail.

Elijah at around 1 1/2 months.

Last summer when we went to stay with my parents for a week Elijah and I ended up sharing the guest room bed. Sophia had her pack 'n play, Matthew was still back in Connecticut, so it seemed pointless to have Elijah on the floor. Can I just say, bad idea? Have you ever met Elijah? What does he do best? TALK! Every night we would go to bed, pretty much worn out from going to the beach or pool (or running a 5k *ahem*) and you-know-who would want to talk, and talk and talk! Hmmm, maybe now I know how Matthew feels and why he's temped to smother me with a pillow some nights! Also, he was a kicker! I would wake up with his feet between my shoulder blades every single night. So, no, I don't recommend co-sleeping with a four year-old

Anyway, so when Sophia was born, once again we determined to encourage independent sleeping habits. For the most part it really worked. She doesn't get nursed or rocked to sleep, ever. She even gets really fussy if you try, I swear! She prefers to be put in her crib with her paci, her blankie and her bedtime music playing. She's usually out like a light in ten minutes. It's so great! She still gets up for night-time feedings once or twice, which I've stopped trying to fight because it isn't worth it. Because of her brace it makes it impossible to bring her to bed to feed her, so I'm usually out on the couch for those feedings.

But occasionally she'll wake up around 5:30-6:00 when it's too early to get up, so I just take off her brace and bring her to bed with me. Matthew is usually already out of bed, so there's plenty of room. After a feeding she dozes right off. Sometimes I snuggle for a while, sometimes I push her over to the other side of the bed so I can have a little more room. Either way, it's sweet. Often she'll wake up before me and start trying to pull my nose off or rip my eyeballs out, but it's still pretty cute waking up to her little face.



What I woke up to this morning.