A milestone for hippies
When I was pregnant with Isaac, I swore up and down to anyone who would listen that there was "no way" I was cosleeping with my kid. He was totally sleeping in his crib all the time. The big bed is for big people! Totally!
Blame it on Seattle, The Land Where Hippies Come to Die. My resolve to not cosleep lasted until my first night as a mom. With Isaac nursing, I discovered that I would have to lug my sorry self out of bed when he needed to eat, which was a lot. If I pulled him in bed with me instead, nobody had to get up. There was no crying. There was much sleeping. There was rejoicing all around, until Isaac got big enough and squirmy enough, like at around 6 or 7 months, that cosleeping became no-sleeping, and then we largely gave it up.
Jacob is still as a statue while sleeping, so we don't have that problem. We both sleep like champs together. And Dada has been such an insomniac since Jacob was born that he hasn't complained much about the "other man" taking his place in the Big People Bed. Each night, I put Jakey down in his crib at bedtime, but I bring him into bed with me when he wakes up and we share a cozy, squooshy slumber together. He just smells so nice and is so soft -- like a screaming teddy bear, he is. How can you not want that?
The problem with cosleeping with Jacob, now that Jacob is highly mobile, is Isaac. When I coslept with Isaac, I woke up when he woke up, and that was that. Now with Jacob, sometimes Isaac wakes up first, and sometimes I am the one who gets up with him. Now, if you are a big poopferbrains like me, you may be tempted to let Jacob remain in the Big People Bed (the one without walls, remember?) to get in as much rest as he can. Again, because you are a big poopferbrains, you use sturdy, trustworthy pillow fortifications to keep him in one place. You do this until last weekend, when it takes you less than one minute to make it back to the bedroom to rescue him as he cries in his "Mommy Mommy I'm aWAKE!!" voice, and you find that His Fatness has navigated over your puny pillow ramparts and up to the very precipice of the matress. He sees the blood draining from your face and grins at you from the brink of death.
Thus, we encountered a sort of hippie milestone, if you will, last Sunday night. It was the first night in his life that Jacob slept the entire night in his crib. It was painful for me to sleepwalk back and forth between rooms, but really, this move is long overdue. He's now sleeping regularly 4+ hours between screams, and is usually soothed back to sleep with a big dose of boobie juice. We've also realized that he does a lot of sleep screaming, wherein he cries briefly (for less than a minute) and, if left alone, goes right back to sleep. Another big plus is that Big Brother seems to sleep through everything. Who would have thought?
So, Jakey-Boo, no more sleeping with the mommy! Do you hear me?
(except for naps and when Daddy's out of town and when it's three in the morning and I just can't trust that I'll remember to pull the side of your crib back up when you get finished eating. Then you can come sleep with me, my precious squooshy soft good-smelling baby!)
Blame it on Seattle, The Land Where Hippies Come to Die. My resolve to not cosleep lasted until my first night as a mom. With Isaac nursing, I discovered that I would have to lug my sorry self out of bed when he needed to eat, which was a lot. If I pulled him in bed with me instead, nobody had to get up. There was no crying. There was much sleeping. There was rejoicing all around, until Isaac got big enough and squirmy enough, like at around 6 or 7 months, that cosleeping became no-sleeping, and then we largely gave it up.
Jacob is still as a statue while sleeping, so we don't have that problem. We both sleep like champs together. And Dada has been such an insomniac since Jacob was born that he hasn't complained much about the "other man" taking his place in the Big People Bed. Each night, I put Jakey down in his crib at bedtime, but I bring him into bed with me when he wakes up and we share a cozy, squooshy slumber together. He just smells so nice and is so soft -- like a screaming teddy bear, he is. How can you not want that?
The problem with cosleeping with Jacob, now that Jacob is highly mobile, is Isaac. When I coslept with Isaac, I woke up when he woke up, and that was that. Now with Jacob, sometimes Isaac wakes up first, and sometimes I am the one who gets up with him. Now, if you are a big poopferbrains like me, you may be tempted to let Jacob remain in the Big People Bed (the one without walls, remember?) to get in as much rest as he can. Again, because you are a big poopferbrains, you use sturdy, trustworthy pillow fortifications to keep him in one place. You do this until last weekend, when it takes you less than one minute to make it back to the bedroom to rescue him as he cries in his "Mommy Mommy I'm aWAKE!!" voice, and you find that His Fatness has navigated over your puny pillow ramparts and up to the very precipice of the matress. He sees the blood draining from your face and grins at you from the brink of death.
Thus, we encountered a sort of hippie milestone, if you will, last Sunday night. It was the first night in his life that Jacob slept the entire night in his crib. It was painful for me to sleepwalk back and forth between rooms, but really, this move is long overdue. He's now sleeping regularly 4+ hours between screams, and is usually soothed back to sleep with a big dose of boobie juice. We've also realized that he does a lot of sleep screaming, wherein he cries briefly (for less than a minute) and, if left alone, goes right back to sleep. Another big plus is that Big Brother seems to sleep through everything. Who would have thought?
So, Jakey-Boo, no more sleeping with the mommy! Do you hear me?
(except for naps and when Daddy's out of town and when it's three in the morning and I just can't trust that I'll remember to pull the side of your crib back up when you get finished eating. Then you can come sleep with me, my precious squooshy soft good-smelling baby!)
posted by Claire at 2:13 PM
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