My Case for Co-Sleeping

Or more specifically, bed-sharing.

It's amazing that we enter Parentdom with all these grandiose ideas about how we will be "the best parent."  We will do certain things, just because that's how it is done.  Then the unimaginable happens.  We actually become a parent.  And your whole world is turned upside down.

In America, we put our babies in cribs.  That's just how it is.  Or so we're told...  After the fact and lots of reading and research later, I realize bed-sharing happens far more often than 1) the media would like us to believe and 2) people like to admit.

I don't get why it's frowned upon.  I will say this though:  It should be done in a SAFE manner.  It's best done by a breastfeeding mother.  I will agree with this 100% percent.  What is easier than feeling your baby stir, turning over and putting breakfast, dinner, midnight snack or whatever in their mouth?  As a bed-sharing momma, you have a certain awareness about your babe.

For me, bed-sharing was most unexpected.  I prepped the nursery.  I purchased the crib.  I bought the cutest bedding I could find.  I set it all up, eagerly anticipating the day I'd bring my dear, sweet babe home and lovingly place him in his crib.  (Said crib now makes a fantastic over-sized laundry basket.)

Then I birthed said babe.  I couldn't imagine (IMAGINE!) putting my sweet boy in his crib.  In a different room.  I needed him next to me, just as much as he needed me next to him.  I wanted to feel him breathing.  I wanted to smell his sweet breath.  I needed to know he was OKAY.  (He wasn't, but that's another story entirely.)

In the hospital, they did not allow the baby to sleep with you, so I would stay awake all night, holding my dear baby in my arms.  I would gaze at him, hardly believing he was all mine.  The nurses would come in to check on me and cluck cluck about me sleeping with him.  I'd assure them I had been awake the entire time, keeping watch over Monster.  I will never forget the witching hour, holding him and just thinking...marveling. Watching the sky start to turn shades of grey and then pink.  Wondering how everyone could go about their day normally, when I now had this sweet baby to take care of. 

Then I got home and nothing changed.  When it came time for bed the first night, I laid him gently in the bed next to me.  And since that night, nothing has changed.

You know what I love best about bed-sharing?  Those last smiles.  After he's nursed and is laying next to me with his eyes a flutter...he'll smile.  The smiles meant for his mommy.  I can then snuggle him close and wonder at the miracle I am lucky enough to call my own.

Then in the morning, my dear sweet boy will pop his big blue eyes open and look at me with a huge grin.  "Mom!  Wake up!  It's morning!"  He'll laugh and poke my face, rub my arm.  I can't imagine my mornings any other way.  I know that someday it will all come to an end.  My boy will grow up and sleep on his very own.  I'll cherish these memories for a lifetime.  All the sleepy smiles.  They make my heart sing...and smile.

And that, my friend, is why I bed-share.