Co-Sleeping

When you're a new mom, everyone is going to throw scary statistics in your face and tell you what worked, or rather didn't work, for them. It gets pretty overwhelming. One thing that always terrifies me is SIDS. Sudden infant death syndrome is something EVERY person caring for an infant or small child should know about, if you don't, I suggest doing a quick Google search before you continue reading my ramblings.

Chance of SIDS increase when you co-sleep, which makes sense because you could roll onto your wee one and they can't crawl out from under you, among other reasons. I have two daughters, they're two years old and eight months old now, and for the first three months of their lives they slept in their bassinet, swaddled. One at a time they outgrew the bassinet and they came into bed with mommy and daddy. I was worried when my youngest joined our huddle that my oldest would roll onto her, my husband and I have mastered sleeping on the edge of the bed and not moving but Sammy is a tornado once she's asleep. I didn't need to worry, she cuddles her little sister and hardly rolls around anymore.

Besides the fact that co-sleeping makes nursing at night the easiest thing ever (seriously, at eight months old Mia will pull my boob out of my shirt to nurse and I won't even wake up half of the time), I love it because of the bond I get with my family. We have a king-sized bed, thankfully, and I lay between my daughters now because Mia has become a hair puller. Sam will curl up with her dad and listen to a story, it does my soul good to read Goodnight Moon a few times and when I'm finished I have two little girls snuggled onto each side of me. I also love that when one of them has a nightmare, I'm right there right away, reassuring them that everything's okay. Or I get to see Sammy, in her sleep, crawl over me, and cuddle into her little sister and sigh.

These are moments you miss when they're in their own beds. Sure, I wake up with toe-sized bruises in questionable places some days and have had diapers leak pee on others. Personal space is a foreign concept long given up on and alone time is unheard of but when you work ten-hour days you take all the cuddles with your family that you can get. I'm a good 99 percent sure there's a law (at least in Ontario where we live) that you can't share a bed with your children past a certain age so it is my belief that you should do it while you can. Make those memories that build the foundation of their childhood. Have pillow fights in bed with your toddler. Be the big spoon while you read them a bedtime story. Turn the flashlight on, on your phone, shine it at the ceiling, put your hand over it and make shadow puppets. Best of all, go to sleep listening to their soft breaths and wake up to look at those beautiful eyes you created as they stare up at you, waiting to start the day together.