Co-sleeping
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Wow. Last night was insane. I am trying this new thing, where I put Scout down to sleep in the co-sleeper bassinet attached to our bed instead of my usual routine of sleeping with her on my chest in the recliner. Not working.
Most nights, we start out in the recliner and then move to the bed in the wee hours of the morning. At that point, I just nurse her in the side-lying position whenever she wakes to feed. I won't get into details, but something happened that made me decide it's not safe to sleep with her lying on my chest in the recliner anymore. I also started questioning the saftey of having her in our bed. That's why I'm trying to get her to sleep in her own bed now.
I hate it. She hates it.
I thought it was going to work because she took a nice long nap in the co-sleeper yesterday, after I got her swaddle wrap back out and decided to try it again. She wasn't fond of it several weeks ago, but she seemed to enjoy it yesterday. When night time rolled around, she changed her mind. I tried EVERYTHING to get her to sleep.....but without fail, she would wake up about 2 minutes after I laid her down. This went on for hours. I was exhausted. I had only slept for 3 hours the night before and stupidly went without a nap. At 2 AM (or later, I'm not sure) I gave up and laid her in the bed with me. I nursed her to sleep and we both slept comfortably and peacefully the rest of the morning.
I don't think it's fair to make her sleep alone if she doesn't want to. And I'm not an advocate of letting a babies cry themselves to sleep, so that's not an option. I guess I need to decide if I want to keep trying to get her to sleep in the bassinet or if I just want her to stay in the bed with us for now.
I have honestly never felt uneasy about her safety in our bed until it became clear to me that she is not safe in the recliner. I feel very aware of where she's at when she's in our bed and I wake at her every move. There's no way for her to fall, since the co-sleeper is strapped to my side of the bed. When she sleeps between DH and I, I wake him up to let him know that she is between us and I am usually half-awake and guarding her with my arm in case DH gets restless.(sigh) I don't know what to do. It would be nice if she would sleep in her co-sleeper, but I don't want to force her.
Most nights, we start out in the recliner and then move to the bed in the wee hours of the morning. At that point, I just nurse her in the side-lying position whenever she wakes to feed. I won't get into details, but something happened that made me decide it's not safe to sleep with her lying on my chest in the recliner anymore. I also started questioning the saftey of having her in our bed. That's why I'm trying to get her to sleep in her own bed now.
I hate it. She hates it.
I thought it was going to work because she took a nice long nap in the co-sleeper yesterday, after I got her swaddle wrap back out and decided to try it again. She wasn't fond of it several weeks ago, but she seemed to enjoy it yesterday. When night time rolled around, she changed her mind. I tried EVERYTHING to get her to sleep.....but without fail, she would wake up about 2 minutes after I laid her down. This went on for hours. I was exhausted. I had only slept for 3 hours the night before and stupidly went without a nap. At 2 AM (or later, I'm not sure) I gave up and laid her in the bed with me. I nursed her to sleep and we both slept comfortably and peacefully the rest of the morning.
I don't think it's fair to make her sleep alone if she doesn't want to. And I'm not an advocate of letting a babies cry themselves to sleep, so that's not an option. I guess I need to decide if I want to keep trying to get her to sleep in the bassinet or if I just want her to stay in the bed with us for now.
I have honestly never felt uneasy about her safety in our bed until it became clear to me that she is not safe in the recliner. I feel very aware of where she's at when she's in our bed and I wake at her every move. There's no way for her to fall, since the co-sleeper is strapped to my side of the bed. When she sleeps between DH and I, I wake him up to let him know that she is between us and I am usually half-awake and guarding her with my arm in case DH gets restless.(sigh) I don't know what to do. It would be nice if she would sleep in her co-sleeper, but I don't want to force her.
Labels: baby sleep
posted by Unkempt Mommy at 1:25 PM
2 Comments:
Sam slept in our bed between me and the co-sleeper for most of the time that we had it. He did sleep in it sometimes, but he never liked it much. I understand their reasoning for making the mattress so firm, but I wouldn't want to sleep on it, either. Scout is safe in your bed. If you are comfortable with her there, and she is comfortable, it will be fine.
I found sorley would fall asleep in his moses basket if I put him in when he was really tired, played his mobile music and held my hand against his cheek (I guess the feel of the skin made his think he was on my chest). Then halfway through the night when he woke up I would bring him into bed for the rest of the night, gradually he would sleep longer by himself and now I bring him into bed around 7 or 8am for a feed, cuddle and wee snooze. I don't know what would work for scout but I'd persevere for your sake because I know it's not much of a night's sleep when your constantly aware of bubs and hubby's movements. However I don't go with the cry-it-out method either.
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