Last night my little girl, instead of sleeping for the night in her parents arms as she has done since day one, slept in her bassinet. sigh. My little girl is growing up.
Nate and I co-sleep. Actually, we technically bed-share as Abby sleeps with us in our bed and has since the day she was born. It started in the hospital when we both thought she was so little and helpless that we didn't want to put her down in the hospital cribs and instead held her as she, and then we, slept. When we took her home we continued the same routine. Mostly because we were so exhausted and having her sleep in our arms meant we didn't have to deal with her crying when we put her down. Yeah, we could have worked those first few weeks to teach her that sleeping on her own in her crib or bassinet was just fine, but we loved holding her so we didn't. As time went by we worked on having her sleep in her crib for naps (which she does most excellently!), but still held her for bedtime.
Last night we didn't plan on having her sleep on her own. It actually started because Abby had fallen asleep and Nate and I were still up. So at 10:30pm I put her down in the bassinet fully expecting to go and get her when she woke up crying in 20 minutes, but thinking that if she did go down for a bit longer than that then the bassinet in our room would be better for transitioning to the bed without waking her up too much rather than doing this from her crib across the house. Was I in for a surprise!
About 20 minutes after putting Abby down she cried for her pacifier but did so with her sleepy cry (eyes still closed and a different cry than "come pick me up, Mom!"), so I put her paci back in, soothed her forehead, and left. She went back to sleep! At midnight Nate and I decided we were ready for bed and I saw that she was still sleeping. After debating for a bit we decided to let her sleep in the bassinet for as long as she would instead of bringing her into bed with us. I thought this would give me a good night's sleep as I wouldn't have her in my arms waking me up.
Boy, was I wrong! I was up until almost 1:15am checking on her to make sure she was still breathing and missing her in my arms. I didn't realize how much I loved sleeping with her! Smelling her milk breath as she exhales, smoothing her ticklish hair away from my cheeks, and feeling her little kicks on my tummy as she settles in to sleep. I missed this!!! My little girl was awesome, though, as she slept in her bassinet until her 3:30am nursing. It took a bit to figure out how to get her from point A to B to nurse as normally I just roll on my side, but we did it!
Here's to my little girl growing up and starting to sleep in the bassinet all by herself! (And here's to Mom for letting her grow up even if she doesn't want to fall asleep without holding her baby!)
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The everyday happenings of a family of five.
I co-slept with both Hailey and Jackson until they were like 9 or 10 months. It was the best thing ever, and allowed me more sleep becuase I would just roll over to nurse rather than have to get up! That post totally brought back memories.
ReplyDeleteThat's a big step for both of you! We didn't bed-share, but each of our kids slept in their basinet in our room until they were 6 months old. I remember how heart breaking it was for me to move them into their own room. :o) Now I'm glad, because we have great little sleepers, but they seemed so small at the time. Abby is growing up! (And very cute, too!)
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