Josiah's neverending sleeping problem has progressively gotten worse over the last month. What started out as one night waking turned into three or more and sometimes those lasted hours. After a night this week with only 2.5 hours of sleep I decided that something had to give! I couldn't take anymore of the sleepless nights! Pregnancy and sleep deprivation do not mix.
Two nights ago I decided to just let Josiah sleep with us after the first night waking. Pete didn't like being kicked so he went out into the living room ( one of the things that I have always had a problem with when it comes to co-sleeping ). But do you know what??? Josiah slept the rest of the night with me and never woke again!!
Sometime in the middle of that night I went out to Pete on the couch and told him if this is something we are going to do then we HAVE to get a king size bed so that Pete isn't relegated to the couch.... So last night we went out bed shopping and tomorrow my wonderful new Sealy Posturpedic king size bed will be arriving at my door step!!
Last night we did the same thing with Si. After his first night waking he came to bed with me and Pete went out to the couch... Si woke up one more time last night but after a bottle went right back to sleep!! Can you believe it!?? I got 9 hours of sleep last night... Granted it was broken up a bit. But I can't remember the last time I got that much sleep! My only regret is that I am not breastfeeding and so I still have to get up to get a bottle... Doh!
Co-sleeping has become a bit of a controversy in our society today. But when research is done the pros far outweigh the cons. I know a few of the most popular reasons NOT to cosleep include: The baby never leaving your bed (how many college students do you know still sleep with their parents?), mom and dad are never alone anymore (um.... there are other rooms in the house with flat surfaces... 'nuff said) and the other big one is safety. The safety concern is pretty big with a lot of people. I know it always has been with me. But if you take the right precautions it has been proven that cosleeping has decreased the incidence of SIDS.
That being said. I was one of those people that said they would never cosleep... It just wasn't something that I wanted to do. Something that my family members convinced me was the dumbest thing on earth I could ever do! But now almost three years after having my first child I have come to realize that we all raise our children the best that we can. And we do it in the way that we deem right.
After going through months of no sleep with Josiah and tons of doctor's appts to figure out why he wasn't sleeping, it finally occured to me that maybe, just maybe, all Josiah needed was the security of knowing that I am still there. Every baby is different. Emma is very independent and this was never a need of hers. But Josiah is needy... and this is one of his biggest needs. So as a parent who loves my children more than anything in the world, it is my responsibility to meet the needs of my children. If that means going against the mainstream then that is what Pete and I plan to do.
After two nights of getting sleep all I can say is that I can't figure out why I didn't do this before!! We are hoping that after getting Josiah through his anxiety he will be able to go back to sleeping on his own. I have two months before Abby gets here to accomplish that. But in the meanwhile I need sleep!
Now we have the decision in front of us to decided to cosleep with Abby or not. We are kind of leaning towards doing it. It is so much easier! I plan on succeeding in breastfeeding this time. No more formula in this household... It is evil stuff I tell ya! And so cosleeping would make it much easier on us all.
But if the day comes that Abby is born and sleeping with us and Josiah still needs the security of mom and dad then we will welcome them both into our room, bed and hearts because that is the best and right thing to do with our children.
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