co-sleeping limits

Of all the parenting philosophies that I've explored, Attachment Parenting best fits with my views, values and beliefs. Part of AP includes co-sleeping. People are a little startled when they find out that Maxton sleeps in our bedroom and until a few weeks ago, in our bed. I don't see what the big deal is, for centuries families have shared living quarters... I think it's a purely American notion, driven by marketers and commercialism, who have created a "norm" that babies should sleep by themselves in their own private rooms. Maybe I'd feel differently if we had bedrooms to spare, but right now the 2nd bedroom is where the guest bed, books and computer sleep.

Being the 5.5 month pregnant girl that I am, sleeping with Maxton in our bed was getting kinda tricky. I felt like I was guarding my belly from kicks all night. Maxton likes to sleep perpendicular to Ben and me (and most of the time snuggled so close to me that I'm squished in a corner of the bed). Furthermore, the bigger I got, the harder it became to reposition him, not to mention, reposition myself. It was time to train 18-month-old Maxton to sleep in his crib (right next to our bed) and sleep in there all night.

This is why we stopped co-sleeping.



For the transition, we made a huge deal about how cool it was going to be for the big boy to sleep in his own bed. I even put my old baby pillowcase on a brand new Sleep Number pillow for him. We did our nighttime routine (pjs, brush teeth, sing, read, pray, kisses, close door, lights out) and I put him in the crib and talked to him about how big boys get to sleep in their own special beds and he was going to be fine and Mami would be right here. There was a little crying.... I hugged him lots. But he went to sleep like a champ. He still reaches for me and likes to hold my finger sometimes... he plays with my knuckles until he falls back to sleep. For the first few weeks he was waking up around 5 a.m. and we'd bring him in our bed so he could sleep longer. Lately, he's been in his crib all night. The transition wasn't half as traumatic as I expected! He even sleeps in the crib for naps!

I don't regret co-sleeping (in the same bed) one bit. I know the security that he had his first year and a half (of having mommy and daddy right there) is the reason he's able to handle the transition.