Ah, The Joy of Co-Sleeping

OHMYGOO'NESS! A fellow COSLEEPER? YIPPEE-KI-YAY! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Are you jerkin muh leg? Are you a serious co-sleeper? How die-hard are you?
WoopWoop, I have a WHOLE new respect! WoopWoop!
Friggin A! Shufflin' away to the family bed party dance. WoopWoop!

Yes, Peony and I are pretty AP, which includes co-sleeping. But when I started co-sleeping, it was because I had a colicky baby who would not sleep. Actually same with all my kids. It got better in March when we finally bought a king sized bed. When I had my first, my mother was horrified at the idea of co-sleeping. I do not know how people get their kids to sleep. The flip side is I am amazed we ever manage to have succeeding children...LOL. My dh is starting to tire of it though because we have been co-sleeping for nearly our entire marriage, and while the munchkin snuggles up to me, he usually ends up with little feet in his face.

What is AP? By the way, rather than overload your comment box, I blogged about this myself at http://mommentary.blogspot.com/2003_10_19_mommentary_archive.html#106667332980411888

Just in case anybody was interested.

Anybody co-sleep with more than one? I don't think Edyn's going to be ready to go off on her own by the time bambino #3 shows up in late January.

Zooey got a bed for his second birthday, from my husband's sister, and he was so excited about Zooey-sized things, he jumped into it and never wanted to leave. Edyn's just not there yet. And DH does NOT like to be touched by anybody while he's sleeping, even if it's me. Especially if it's a squirmy toddler who starts out with her head on the south edge of the bed (where it's "supposed" to be), but little by little through the night wiggles around 180 until her feet are pressed against my pillow and her head is backed against my belly. Can't have her sleep on DH's side or he'll never get any sleep.

I thought about Zooey and Edyn both being old enough (but young enough) to share a bed, but I don't have room to put up a full-size mattress for them, and they are both such wigglers, they'd need it. Plus I'm not sure of the safety of a 4.5-yr-old and an 18-month-old bed sharing. Any suggestions? I'm running out of time to get Edyn to change before the baby comes...if we're going to change.

Y'all should read Tina Thevenin's book "The Family Bed".
We have a king sized bed for a good reason! (Get the kind with drawers underneath - you won't need to take up floor space with a dresser AND you won't have stuff hiding under the bed!
Attachment parenting is pretty in now, but can you imagine the battles I fought 15+ years ago? Thank God for La Leche League mommas - even if they did almost read me out of meeting for being a (gasp!) 'working mom'.

make that 25+ years ago....I just did the math - Jessica will be 19 in December (boo-hoo!)

29, NOT 19! I have GOT to GET MORE SLEEP!!!! (but not now, am watching hubby sleep so that we don't both sleep through the time for choir rehearsal - baby daughter will be home from after school athletics just in time for dinner and bye bye.

We're kind of off and on co-sleepers. Davey had his crib securely attached to my side of the bed like one of those more expensive "co-sleepers" for, I dunno, 9 months? Then he had the crib next to the bed. Now we have a king size pushed to the wall on my side, and he sleeps in his crib while we're still up, and sometimes comes into the bed at night. We do maintain a lot of our own personal space usually. I have a feeling he might be a bit like Sparki's Zooey. Then again, he's never awake when we put him into crib or bed, unless he's nursing down, so we've got other obstacles ahead of us.

Oh, and I personally cannot imagine him sleeping in his own room just yet. I just don't see the benefits for anyone at this point.

I don't have room for a king-sized bed. Our house is 103 years old & the rooms are all long & narrow. With the crib as a side-car, we only have room for our full-sized bed next to it & we are up against the wall on both sides.

D's Mommy -- Zooey didn't move into his own room until he was 2.5 & we were expecting Edyn. For the first 6 months, his new toddler bed was in our room, albeit 4 feet from the foot of our bed. I didn't want him all the way across the house, even though it's a small house, because in case of fire, I was afraid we wouldn't be able to get to him and get him out. The fire thing still is an issue, but now we have a dog that I trust to warn us (and pray to God that He will use to warn us) if the multiple smoke detectors fail.

Sometimes, Zooey gets scared (active imagination) and wants to sleep with me, in which case, he sleeps across the foot of my full-sized bed & Edyn sleeps next to me & Dh sleeps somewhere else for the night. He really can't take the crowding. And when you only have a full-sized bed, a 230-lb husband and a 6-month-pregnant wife, it gets crowded fast, even without the kids -- LOL!

We had a queen when we started, and two generous-sized parents, so I cannot imagine sleeping with this acrobatic toddler boy and both of us in that. He was like the gingerbread baby when he was littler, so the attached crib mattress space really helped. I do miss snuggling with him as a swaddled newborn, though. When we would sometimes share naps, I noticed he did seem to sleep better with me right there, holding his hand or something.

We do not even bother setting up a crib anymore with new babies. The older baby usually gets out of our bed when my belly from the next baby starts pushing them out.

Peony, if you still have a copy, would you forward my family bed email to Sparki so I don't waste comment space.
In a nut shell...We've always had a queen sized bed. Babies always room with us until weaned. We only move wee ones to toddler beds adjacent to our bed a few months before "new baby" arrives so that they don't think they are being displaced by the new baby.
My family was in a tornado in 2000, so anytime we've a thunderstorm EVERYONE piles in our bed. That's two adults, four children, two dogs in a queen sized bed, with the oldest dog under it. Of course, we have a sleigh bed with hospital grade railings on either side. So I guess it's like having a big ol adult crib without the jail bars. Layout L-R: Mom with Baby at breast, girl, Dad, toddler; Chihuahua somewhere in there...horizontally across the foot of the bed is our son and his Shi-tzu dog. Dixi the watch dog cowers under the bed.
Any more questions, please email me!
smockmomms, President of the Militant Co-Sleeping Cult

ELINOR- I'm guessing AP = attachment parenting