Monday, July 26, 2010

Hush little baby

We put the baby in her cot last night. Yes, I know she is 16.5 months old but from the night she came back from the hospital she has slept in beside me, or us, or her daddy - in the musical beds that our house has become. No one wakes up where they go to sleep and no one ends up waking up beside the person they went to sleep with.
So, we decided, enough was enough and with one near falling out of the bed despite a bed guard incident on Saturday night which put the fear of God in me (it could have been nasty, believe me) she went into her cot last night.
Much was made of “Cara’s bye-byes” and “Cara’s big girl bed”. We let her play in it for a bit and I changed the sheets - washing them nicely and huggled her as she drank her bedtime milk before kissing her and laying her down to sleep.

It took 2 hours for her to go to sleep - mostly she sat up, sang, chatted, barged a little, stood up and lay down until she eventually passed out upside down in her bed.

She slept quite well there - while I felt bereft at the missing baby beside me. After all the wee critter has been beside me for 16.5 months and had been in my tummy for the nine months prior to that. We are not used to not sleeping together.
Joseph woke at 3 and decided he wanted sleepy snuggles with mammy. Hubby was still awake so (cunningly) sneaked into the boy’s bed while the baby, now disturbed, wanted to make the most of using her bed as a newly discovered trampoline.
Joseph slept through it. I didn’t. I tried, thinking no, I wouldn’t give her any attention at all. I broke at 5.30 when the call of morning and getting up for a long day at work was getting too much. She went into the boy’s bed with her daddy. I stayed in our bed with the boy. I slept fitfully until it was time to get up for work and they all slept on while I got ready.
It would be very easy to give up and accept that I have made a rod for my own back and may well take my oil. But I have to start cutting the umbilical cord at some stage.
I guess we will try again tonight.

4 comments:

Debs Riccio said...

well done the lot of you! Don't talk to me about rods and backs - Alice slept with me/us until she was 6! I take full blame due to the nightly feeds and a total cba attitude to removing her from beside me to put her in a cot (but 2 feet away) we even endured months of 'sleep training' to get her into her own bed and eventually succumbed to the purchase of a King sized bed to take us all! (I still miss those times) x

Debs Riccio said...

*not the husband though, thought I'd better clarify that*

Keris Stainton said...

I don't hold with rods and backs either. I'd love us all to sleep together if we had a bed big enough. (I've actually considered putting a kingsized bed into Harry's room, which would make the room all bed!)

And no offence to David (apart from his snoring), but Harry is much nicer to sleep with than he is. Didn't sleep much with Joe except in hospital and when he was very tiny, but I LOVED it.

Keris Stainton said...

Ooh and good luck to you all, I'm sure you'll work it out. Just don't beat yourself up about it. Do whatever works for you.

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