Welcome To My Crib Yo June 11, 2007

When I was pregnant I had this plan that my sweet little baby would spend her first few months sleeping next to our bed in her tiny little bassinet. It was such a rosie little mental picture. But the first night home my sweet little baby taught me a thing or two about plans and cried and cried and cried in her tiny little bassinet. Finally Dad took her and put her down in bed next to him and the little darling slept soundly. This was how we became “accidental co-sleepers”. We didn’t plan to be co-sleepers, in fact, I was pretty against doing it convinced of the tales that I heard that this practice would lead to on-going sleep issues. It’s the same thing that we were told about letting our dog into bed….and they were right….our dog still sleeps in bed with us, along with our three cats. But she stopped crying and at that point in the game that was all that mattered. The next morning I laughed at the thought that we let all of our pets sleep in our bed with us but we weren’t about to let our own daughter.

Co-sleeping worked out beautifully for us. Now, you know all about our fussy issues. I’ve gone on and on about having a high needs baby, her crying and her strong will…but what I haven’t told you about is the way she sleeps…..soundly. I’m knocking on wood now as I write this, partially afraid to jinx our luck and partially afraid for another sleep deprived mother to read this. With in just a few nights Fiona has slept soundly next to us (she eats a few times a night…but soundly meaning that other then waking to eat…she sleeps!). Once I figured out how to side nurse it became even better. She would stir a bit and I would roll over a bit and she would nurse without either of us really waking up…other then that, not a peep until around 6:30 or 7 a.m.

Then one day she learned she could roll over and our sleeping arangement stopped being quite to beautiful. Fiona would still sleep soundly through the night but she would wriggle and wiggle and kick and squirm and try so hard to roll over all night long that I wouldn’t get any sleep at all. So a few nights ago I set up the Pack n Play next to our bed and tried having her sleep in there for a night. It went very smoothly but it still didn’t sit right with me. Our night was going something like this….Fi falls asleep, I put her in her crib 7:30 or 8 ish…she might wake one or two times….then I move her to our bed when we go to sleep so I can give her a good feeding…then I move her to the pack-n-play to sleep…then when she wakes it’s back into our bed to eat and then back into the pack-n-play….so by the end of the night she has slept in three different beds…this can’t be good. SO…

On the eve of her 4 month birthday bright eyes bit the bullet and slept all night long in her big girl crib. I should say Mom bit the bullet. It was so sad. It seemed so weird to have all of us asleep in our bedroom and just little Fiona all by herself asleep in hers….but it went well. She slept great! I fed her before we went to bed as usual and she woke up one time to be fed again…but went right back to sleep….and woke up this morning around the same time as always and I found her chatting away with her little octopus friend and got a big smile when she saw me.

I missed my little cuddly girl snuggled up next to me…but I had to realize that my little cuddly girl was already gone and had become a squirmy-wormy girl who needed her own space! I remember worrying about how we would move her out of our bed someday and I heard from more then one mom that we would all just know when it was time. I couldn’t imagine it then but here we are at only 4 months and I know exactly what they meant! I’m not against regression. If things go south in the crib we are perfectly fine with taking her right back into bed with us…but for now my little girl has her first taste of her own space.