30/09/2017
To co-sleep or not to co-sleep?...that is the question...
I decided to co-sleep with my boy when he was about one month old or so as it sounded easy. We lived in a small one bedroom so would be sharing the bedroom space and to be honest, it was my midwife that had suggested it, as that is what worked for her. Co-sleep to feed on demand.
At first I loved it, getting to cuddle up with my little man, not having to get up to feed him and listening to his little grunts and snorts that wee babies make. After a while I started to notice he was only sleeping 45mins or so only waking to have a feed, of which I would feed him back to sleep as that was what I was told.
Well after a few months of this I was tired, easily irritated, had black bags under my eyes, I would look at myself in the mirror and be like, what has happened?! You look like s**t but being so tired you just dont really care sometimes.
Wanting to be intimate with my partner also became rather hard as A. I was tired B. Felt unattractive and C. Our son was sleeping in the same bed as us (I personally wasn't comfortable with that 😅). I started to think how something so natural like sleeping in the same bed as your own children could be so hard?!
As time went on I learnt from other mummas that their bubbas were sleeping for hours at a time. To me that sounded so alien. How come my boy doesn't sleep like that?
Well from day one I was led down the ol' natural parenting path letting him rule the roost pretty much. I didn't establish a routine, he decided his own schedule, feed when he wants, play when he wants, sleep when he wants ( which wasn't often) and I was supposed to just abide by his rules.
After a trip away for my birthday without Daddy, which might I add was meant to be a relaxing wee holiday with my parents at the beach, which turned into a crying marathon mum and baby alike, I decided something had to change.
I decided to sleep train him. He was eight months at this stage and from day one I hadn't established any routine as I had let him decide. He was a baby, what was I thinking?!
So upon my return to Queenstown I searched online for any help with sleep training. I came across the Sleep Sense program which ticked all the boxes in my book. So My partner and I (having the support from your partner goes a long way) we implemented the plan. The first night was the hardest where he cried for an hour (not cry it out) but then slept the whole night after he stopped crying. The second night he cried for 15minutes and proceeded to sleep through the night and the third night there was no crying he was happy to go to sleep in his cot and stay that way until the sun came up.
We had done it! Without letting him cry it out as that is what a lot of people assume is what sleep training is. We got our nights back, our bed back and our sanity 😅. It was a celebration!!
Over a year after training our boy, we all get our required amount of sleep we need as humans to function. We are happier as a family and know that when there are those times of sickness and sleepless nights that it wont be long until the Z's are floating through the air again.
I chose not to co-sleep...what do you choose?
