Foundations

I have not been sleeping well these last few nights. Elsa has been restless and squirmy and waking up and half-waking up A LOT. Developmental spurt? Teething? Sickness? All of the above? Probably. It makes for one tired Mama.

Last night was particularly unpleasant. I drifted in and out of sleep all night as she kept waking up or waking me up by squirming around. At one point she even bonked me in the face with her noggin. Ouch.

But there wasn't much I could do, so I just nursed her and tried to keep sleeping. At one point I was having very vivid dreams and when I was woken up by Elsa, I remembered what I was dreaming about....foundations. There were rock foundations in fields full of flowers, intricately created rock formations, strong and steady. Strange dream.

Strange and symbolic. I was getting very inpatient last night. But I snuggled her close and closed my eyes. Perhaps these dreams were my heart's way of telling me I am creating a strong foundation for my baby girl {and for all my kiddos}...that will be there for all their lives. Strong foundations, I hope.

3 Babies Later: The Evolution of Our Family Bed

Welcome to the Safe Cosleeping Blog Carnival
This post was written for inclusion in the Safe Cosleeping Blog Carnival hosted by Monkey Butt Junction . Our bloggers have written on so many different aspects of cosleeping. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
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Baby Number One
Our sweet Maddie came into the world surrounded by surprise and drama. Born just a day shy of 33 weeks, she was lacking womb time...and boy did she show this! We were in for a real shock when we brought her home. Not only were we new parents, but we were also parents to a preemie who was high needs.

She never slept. She cried a lot. And we were newbies, scared and unaware that we could say no to "mainstream" parenting advice.

One day, when she had been home for about a week, out of sheer desperation for sleep, I picked her out of the bassinet and laid her on my chest in our bed. Within moments she was asleep. And I was left wondering, "what do I do now?" So I gently laid her next to me, curled my arm around her in a protective circle and fell asleep.

From that day on, she slept in bed with us. And we all slept reasonably well. Now that we were officially a bed-sharing family, I began to do more reading and research to make myself feel comfortable and secure with that choice. What I found was a wonderful community of like-minded parents and authors who were the ones to introduce me to the world of Attachment Parenting and how to co-sleep and bed-share safely.

I found it quite surprising that I seemed to wake up before she did, just in time to nurse her. I remember when she started sleeping for longer stretches I would till wake up frequently and wonder if/when she would wake up! At some point we started noticing that it wasn't working out as well anymore.

Maddie slept well in our bed until she was about 6 months. Then she began squirming and not settling well and fussing, and I started to not sleep so well either. So we tried laying her down in her crib and she was happy. So, we knew she was ready. It felt good to have met her needs and to see her reach the ready-to-be-in-crib milestone on her own terms.