Friday, July 26, 2013

Co-sleeping changes

So our alarm went of last night...but that's not the most interesting thing that's happened in the last 24 hours. Let me explain:

Two nights ago I got out of our bed after Adara had fallen asleep nursing  next to me. As I was brushing my teeth, I heard a bump and then loud crying. Yes, she'd fallen off the bed. After all those warnings from loved ones, including my husband, I'd let my precious child fall off the bed. Thankfully she was fine, but I felt horrible! We decided right then that we had to change something.

Alex and I had discussed various ways to transition her to her own space, but hadn't come up with a specific plan. That night we decided to try bringing in the guest mattress and setting it on the floor next to our bed. I ended up sleeping all night next to her. She only nursed twice! Normally, she nurses three, four, five or more times throughout the night, and is pretty wiggly. I woke up feeling rested. Alex woke up feeling rested, because he didn't have to worry about running into Adara (which had been happening often, since she's getting so big!). We decided she's never sleeping in the big bed again.

Last night I again fell asleep next to Adara on the twin bed mattress. The alarm woke us up a little after 1 0pm, we hid in the closet until the police came, realized it was a faulty window, and then went back to sleep. Sort of. Adara went right back to sleep. I got up and back into my own bed and watched TV with Alex while the adrenaline wore off. Around midnight Adara fussed again, so I nursed her back to sleep. I didn't fall asleep next to her, so when I was sure she was asleep, I decided to try sleeping on my bed.

It's just past 7 am, and Adara is still asleep! Around 5:45 am, I heard her fussing, but just watched her to see if she would go back to sleep. She did!

It's only been two nights, but I believe putting Adara on her own bed has been one of the best decisions we've made recently-for ourselves, for our marriage, and for our sanity. I don't regret co-sleeping-it was great when Adara was tiny and needed to hear my heartbeat and eat ever couple of hours. Now, she has room to roll over, but I can still hear her if she needs me in the night. I also don't worry about her rolling off the mattress, since it's on the floor. Win, win, win.