Since I am going to be at Type-A Parent Conference and of course have to plan that trip and such I decided now would be the time to bring up some of my really old blog posts. I am talking from 2008-2009 era, I hope you enjoy and if you were not a subscriber back then well you will get some new content topics to comment on! Happy Reading!
I wrote an article about getting Baby K out of our bed and into his crib. That was on March 14, 2009. Today is March 26th and nope Baby K is NOT in his crib and has made it back into our bed.
I am a sucker for a crying baby…I don’t mean just normal everyday crying, because honestly I feel a baby should cry. I never let my oldest cry as a baby and when she finally did have the “time to cry” she often coughed and hacked as if not crying all that first year really made it almost hard on her lungs to cry. What I mean is I am a sucker for a SCREAMING, CRYING baby and boy Baby K has some lungs on him. When he cries it’s not like any of my other children, he has had asthma attacks that were induced by colds, but never the less, my husband has a childhood history of asthma, so when Baby K cries, he screams loudly and starts having what sounds like an asthma attack. I refuse to just “let him cry” and I refuse to rub his back trying to calm him down “without picking him up” if he is seriously sounding like he is hyperventilating.
Honestly, this whole co-sleeping thing is fine by me, however, it’s really taking a toll on mine & hubby’s personal time — otherwise known as “romantic time”. We can’t cuddle with a little person in the bed. I always fall asleep nursing baby K and hubby falls asleep before I even hit the pillow half the time. With hubby’s work hours taking up 6 days of our week it makes it hard for us to have “our time”, so if we were to get Baby K out of our bed into his crib {right beside us, but in his “own crib”} it would give us that little bit of snuggle time at night, making me feel more adequate as a wife and probably making him feel better as a husband too.
Even though I love co-sleeping, I do see the toll it has taken on my relationship with my husband. Without the romantic connection we have gone from loving husband and wife to what seems to be ‘best friends’. I would really like for us to get back on “loving husband and wife” status again, but don’t have the strength to fight with Baby K.
I can hear it now, many may respond telling me to just shut the door, put ear plugs in and let Baby K cry – really? I wouldn’t ever do that – and here is why; allowing baby K to simply ‘cry it out’, in my opinion, tells him that mommy and daddy will not be there when he needs us, it tells him sorry little dude keep crying because no one is coming. That’s too sad to me!
What I did try is outlined in my previous post and it basically was the cry it out method adjusted to be a more comfortable level for hubby and me. We allow Baby K to nurse on both sides, or until full. Diaper & PJ’s will be done prior to this, and we place him in his crib after he is done nursing {usually on both sides}. He is usually half awake by the time I place him in his crib and he will go to sleep with his Fisher-Price Rainforest Peek-A-Boo Waterfall Soother placed on. He loves that toy, and it plays a peaceful toon for about 18 minutes. This method worked for a few days, by day three he didn’t cry much if at all and would sleep til about 1am, when I would pick him up to nurse him and end up falling asleep with him in our bed. We both were okay with this – the fact that Baby K was at least sleeping in the crib for the first part of the night worked for us, we figure when he is done nursing we can work on the “full night in crib”!
Since then, I am not sure what happened but the hyperventilating I talked about earlier in this post is a small amount of what has made me not have the strength to allow Baby K to go in his crib. He sounds absolutely petrified of his crib and it makes me so sad. I don’t know what to do, honestly, if I were not married and raising Baby K as a single mom, as I did with my first born, he would SO be in my bed every night and I wouldn’t care, however, I do have a husband and as a team we should listen to each others thoughts — he wants Baby K in crib and he is willing to help and work on whatever method is comfortable for both of us … so maybe next week I will try again.
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- Baby Shower & Baby Bedding Gifts (happilyblended.com)
