Monday 28 October 2013

Sleeping: Time for a Change?

I think it might be time to put S into her own bedroom.

She's coming up on 19 months old.

Single Mother Ahoy Sleeping Baby with Tigger


For a brief period when she was first born, she slept in a moses basket for a few weeks before I just gave up on it, and decided to just have her sleep in my bed. It was just easier for night feeds to have her right next to me,  and so much easier to get us both back to sleep afterwards too. I ended up feeding her to sleep most of the time, which everyone said was a bad thing, but it was the best choice for us at the time.

When S started being able to roll, I took me bed off its frame and we began sleeping on a mattress on the floor. For a brief period we experimented with me sleeping on my mattress and S sleeping on a single mattress right next to it, but I felt she was too far away from me, and so that idea did not last!

When S was around 11 months old, she went through a particularly difficult patch of teething. She cried all night in pain, and didn't want to be cuddled or held in any way. Many nights, I ended up putting a Baby Jake dvd on and rocking her to sleep in a long-outgrown bouncy chair (never underestimate the worth of a Fisher Price Calming Vibrations chair!) I'm fairly sure, hellish though those nights were for both of us, they helped S to get used to going to sleep without being fed.

When S got a little older, and had gone well past the point of no return where the bouncy chair was concerned, I moved the cot into our bedroom . I continued to feed her to sleep in my bed, but on the nights where she just couldn't sleep and didn't want a cuddle or a story or seemingly anything, I would put her in the cot to watch Baby Jake while I got a little rest.

After a while, I started feeding her to sleep in my bed and then carefully putting her down in the cot. Then when she woke in the night I would bring her into bed with me. Eventually, once she was 13 months old, she just slept straight through the night.

Since then, things have gone up and down. She's had trouble with teething, we've had nights where she's been rocked to sleep in a pushchair while watching Despicable Me on repeat. But on the whole, she sleeps in her cot. My bed is now back on its frame.

I have been thinking recently though, that perhaps she needs to be in her own bedroom. Not because I need my space - I've only just managed to tear myself away from sleeping head-to-head with her on a mattress on the floor - but because I think perhaps I disturb her when I go to bed.

4 comments:

  1. Jennifer Cartwright28 October 2013 at 19:24

    Loved reading this blog :) I have 8 children and all of them have co-slept with me whilst they were younger, my youngest now who is 5 1/2 months old and breastfed sleeps with me and my next youngest who is 3 years old still mainly falls asleep in my bed too whilst cuddling up to me or being read to and then I put him in his bed which is still in my room, he (the 3 year old) usually always sleeps through the whole night unless he is ill or has a nightmare and I don't seem to disturb him when I go to bed or if I am watching TV etc... he stays asleep so I don't think you would disturb your daughter. I think that it is your choice alone on whether you want to keep her in your room but I know that it doesn't do them any harm to still share your room for longer and they don't usually get disturbed, I know also that a lot of people are against co-bed sharing and sharing a room for longer as I have had so much flack over it over the years with my children as I have co-slept and room shared with them and everyone always seems very willing to criticise it even (and especially) health professionals! But I know from experience that it is perfectly ok and good for the bond between children and their Mother etc... to co-sleep/co-room share. As I have also suffered postnatal depression in the past too it also helped me to overcome that by having the closeness and better bonding with my baby through co-sleeping etc.... I love and really enjoy reading your blog and posts on facebook and twitter thankyou for sharing them :) My twitter is jennifersue75 and my facebook is Jennifer Cartwright (Jennifer Rhodes)

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  2. Jennifer Cartwright28 October 2013 at 19:31

    facebook is Jennifer Susan Cartwright (Jennifer Susan Rhodes) sorry, I missed my middle name lol.

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  3. oh that picture is the cutest!
    my son is also 19 months old and we are thinking about a bed for him too soon. i think it is a good thing that little ones get to learn to sleep in their own room at an age that is right for them but it isn't necessarily the answer to a full nights sleep. caleb has been in his own room since he was 6 months old and slept great, but as soon as another factor comes into play like teething or illness...different story. do what suits you both best, and here's hoping to full nights sleep for us all!

    www.thislittlehouse.co.uk

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  4. it's rally awesome , for share your lovely room go room share

    ReplyDelete

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