Saturday, December 13, 2008

I said I never would...

Co-sleeping that is. Prior to becoming a parent, I was adamantly against co-sleeping. I strongly believed that children need to learn to sleep on their own, and couples need their bed to themselves. My pre-child attitudes had no room for even entertaining the idea of letting my child sleep in my bed.

That was before I was blessed with 2 children who are lousy sleepers.

I fought co-sleeping with Spud. I had to get up with him anyways since I never managed to breastfeed him any way except for one position, sitting up. Plus, I always had to supplement him with formula afterwards. So, it was easy to fight the co-sleeping since I was up regardless. Those days are kind of like a blur anyways. I was pretty much always a sleep deprived zombie. Despite getting up with him though, I ended up giving in more and more often when I realized that he would sleep in our bed and I would sleep.

Somehow, I often think my husband shares my viewpoint on things without realizing that he often doesn't. Since I had been so strongly against co-sleeping, I figured he was too. At some point we discussed it and I discovered I was the only one that cared so much, and I had no reason for it.

When Sweetpea was born, I had a much more open mind about the co-sleeping thing. And when she turned into a baby that slept no better then her older brother, it was a godsend. This time, I was able to breastfeed without supplementing and before long, I figured out how to breastfeed laying down.

It's almost unfair. My husband gets up with Spud because I have to feed and "get up" with Sweetpea. There's more then the occasional morning where he looks exhausted and I am doing fine. Aside from the first 2 weeks, I haven't even had many days where I feel especially sleep deprived. I barely wake up when Sweetpea is hungry and the difference is amazing.

It is so easy to form opinions before your children are born, but sometimes alot harder to stick to them.

1 comment:

xmomx said...

Totally agree with you :) I'm fully planning on co-sleeping from the get go with future kiddo's.