For the Love of Co-Sleeping
| May 25, 2010 | Posted by Luschka under Attachment Parenting, Cosleeping |
I love co-sleeping with my daughter, Ameli. She was born at 4.40am, and by 6am we were asleep in our bed, her cradled in my arm. She used her Moses basket for a while and uses a travel cot now for daytime naps and in the early evening, but once I go to bed she is there with me.*
It’s been an amazing experience opening my eyes in the middle of the night to see her there, her little lips puckered, her face aglow in reflected light bouncing off the clouds over London. The most comforting thing in those early weeks was raising my consciousness to just below fully awake, to hear her steady breathing lulling me back in to a peaceful slumber.
I have loved waking up in the morning to her gentle cooing, little crooning sounds, figuring out her voice while observing her hand, stretched out in front of her, turning it this way and that. She lies there, quietly entertaining herself while I sleep. And when she’s ready for milk, or once she’s bored she lets me know.
‘eh’
nothing
‘Eh’
nothing
‘EH’
and I stir
‘Dadadadada’ as she launches herself on to me, drops down next to me and lies staring in to my now awake face, as if to say, ‘Hey! Enough with the sleeping.’
She lies next to me, and we whisper to each other, until I embrace her, pick her up, fly her like an aeroplane. She laughs, spots a nipple and dives towards it. A quick snack. This is how we spend our waking-up time, and before I know it it’s 7am and time to get up. This is a typical morning sharing a bed with my baby.
*I am a big lover of co-sleeping, but never do so if you are on medication (anything that makes you drowsy, including hayfever meds), drugs or have been drinking, or if you are exhausted.
[...] Basket and into the basinet at just a few months (for daytime and early evening naps). Squidgy will co-sleep with me just as Ameli did from an hour after her birth. I can’t imagine putting distance between [...]
[...] co-sleep and have since birth, so I had plenty of sleep in the early months, and we breastfed so there was no preparing bottles [...]
Thanks for sharing this beautiful post, my two are a little older but your story brings back such wonedrful memories.
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[...] moving in this month, we’ve finally actually spent a bit of money on ‘your room’ since we never had a nursery for you, and I feel good about the things we’ve spent money on. Playsets, books, and things to [...]
[...] We bought a cot. A travel cot as there wasn’t really space for the beautiful wooden cot I wanted in the room that was to be the nursery. We intended to put Kyra in a Moses basket in our room for the first three months, but she outgrew it pretty rapidly, so we used the bassinet in the travel cot, which had been moved to our room. But neither the Moses basket nor the bassinet were in full time use. She slept in them during the day, but at night she always ended up sleeping in my arms, while the nursery lay empty. And so we became co-sleepers. [...]
[...] through the night. The only night we’ve slept through since her birth. It’s the bed where we co-sleep and it’s the bed where we’ve dealt with her teething, her fevers and her early morning [...]
Sadly it becomes a bad night’s sleep for everyone when baby grows up. We sometimes let my daughter sleep in bed with us almost as a reward. After a night of dreaming I’m next to a kangaroo (she kicks) I’m ready for that all important separate bed. I’m interested to read about the transition from your bed to Kyra’s own. I think that’s one of the major knocks on co-sleeping: will they ever go back to their own bed?
Joey @ Big Teeth & Clouds’s last [type] ..So do you want it
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I wrote about my co-sleeping on mumable recently. I love it even now when J’s three and kicks me hard lol!
.-= Hayley´s last blog ..Celebrity Hand Me Down Auction! =-.
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This is a really beautiful post. Thanks for sharing it.
.-= Melodie´s last blog ..Madonna and Child-Like Paintings Are Obscene Too? =-.
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A most beautiful sharing of those special moments you share with Princess Kyra, My Lovely.
I Love You~
Kesia
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