Most mornings I wake up with a pair of feet in my face. It's like I went to a raging party the night before and don't remember how I got to my bed or, better yet, why there are feet in my face.
I'm usually grumpy when I first wake up, so having a toe shoved into my sinus cavity makes mornings even less pleasurable. This, of course, is not how we planned to spend our first waking moments most days of the week when we welcomed our babies to the world.
In June 2010, Josie joined our little family and at that time, like so many other first-time parents, we tried to follow some of the rules — you know, things like rest when the baby rests and always put them to sleep on their backs.
That's laughable. Looking back on our first few weeks as parents, I didn't listen to a damn thing anyone told me. Oh, the baby is sleeping! Time to scrub the bathtub and do nine loads of laundry and run up and down the stairs. My brain did not shut off. By the time bedtime and those middle of the night feedings came at the end of the day, I could barely keep myself awake to get her to latch on properly. Instead of sitting in the rocking chair in her bedroom at 2 a.m., I tried propping myself up on pillows in bed and promptly fell asleep despite my husband's incessant pleas to keep me awake.
I don't even remember the first time Josie spent the entire night in our bed, but she had to have been 2 or 3 months old. It took me forever to figure out that fancy side-lying nursing position because she was so tiny and when we did figure it out, it worked so well I forgot what it was like to not wake up with a little person in bed with us. It became a nightly occurrence.
Baby falls asleep nursing.
Baby is put in her bed.
Sometime between 1 and 4 a.m. que *screaming like a banshee*
Baby put on boob in mommy's bed.
Baby and mommy sleep peacefully until alarm goes off.
Boy Wonder, on the other hand, didn't get much sleep. His natural fear of rolling on top of the Bean kept him from resting well for a long time, but you'd never know that now. I can't begin to express my jealousy when he and Josie sleep in on a Saturday or Sunday morning while I get up with Charlie, since she's the one who's using picking my nose with her lower 10 digits.
We had good intentions when this adventure into parenting began. I wanted — always — for our babies to sleep in their beds and I preferred they sleep swaddled on their backs until they had the ability to roll over and get comfortable in whatever position they wanted to sleep in. All good intentions, but not in their plans. Belly sleeping was their preferred method of rest until we accidentally introduced bedsharing, but really co-sleeping was just a logical decision. My kids are snugglers who want that comfort of another warm body. Even now, a handful of months shy of turning 3, Josie curled up in my bed for a story tonight and fell asleep nestled against my chest. Charlotte cuddled up with a blanket and drifted off to dreamland in my arms in the rocking chair.
I know a lot of people are of the mindset that if a child wakes in the night they should be put back to bed — their bed — and it works for some families. I really like my sleep, though, and if sleeping for at least five or six hours a night means one kid elbowing me in the kidneys and the other kneeing me in the face, I'll take it. Gladly. I will roll over and share my bed or co-sleep or whatever you want to call it to get that sleep. It sure beats fighting with a miserable half-awake little person about sleeping in her bed which, in reality, means no one will get any sleep. My kids could wake the dead when they get tired and pissed off.
So, even though both my babies are sound asleep in their own beds right now, I can almost guarantee by 3 a.m. one of them will come wandering down the hall or cry out from her crib and spend the remainder of the night snuggled up between me and my husband.
If I were smart, I would go to bed right this second ... but I think a bowl of ice cream and a cup of tea are calling my name.
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