Co-Sleeping

Co-sleeping is one of those topics that people are strongly for or strongly against.  My midwife suggested co-sleeping during my prenatal care.  I decided that I would have our pack'n play right next to the bed and use that instead of having the baby in the bed with us.  Remember what they say about best laid plans?  Well, mine flew out the window and Jadon began sleeping with us.

A few weeks ago, I decided that I just can't co-sleep anymore.  Jadon was an active, noisy sleeper who would somehow scoot himself sideways and put his head in my back and his feet in Josh's.  Or he would scoot right up against me, pushing me to the edge of the bed.  How in the world could this little thing take up so much of the bed?!  My sleep really began to deteriorate - I was crabby and my body was sore. 

I came to the conclusion that I do not like to cuddle while I am sleeping and that I need my space to be able to move around.  I talked to Josh about getting a King sized bed, but I don't think that would have helped.  Jadon would have scooted right over next to me anyways. 

As I thought about a solution to this, I felt guilty.  How could I not like cuddling with my son?  (I really do, just not when I am sleeping.)

About that time we took a trip to Florida.  Where we stayed had 2 twin beds. One night Josh said that he would sleep with Jadon and wake me up when he got up so I could nurse him.  It was music to my ears.  I slept so good that night. 

When we got home a few days later, I decided to try putting Jadon down in his crib at night.  At this point he was 11 weeks old and sleeping a good 6 hours at a time consistently. He immediately took to sleeping in the crib and only wakes up once during the night for a diaper change and to nurse.  Had he not taken well to to sleeping in the crib, I would have kept him in bed with us for a bit longer and tried again in a few weeks.

If anyone would ask me about co-sleeping, I would tell them to give it a try and see how it goes.  I did really like it the first few weeks and it made nursing every 2 to 3 hours easier.