Sleeping Controversy

This started out as a comment on one of our friend's blogs and I decided to keep typing and share it on my blog. The theme of her post was about letting her 9 week old still sleep in her bed and how the "co-sleeping" thing can be controversial. While we did not do the co-sleeping thing with any of our kids, we did put them on their stomachs. *Gasp*

The only place our son would sleep for the first 8 weeks of his life was in his car seat. I remember sobbing in the doctor's office because he wouldn't sleep (he was less than a week old) and the only rest I got was when he was in his car seat. Do you know what the doctor said? So let him sleep in his car seat . . . it was so nice to hear the doctor say that. That worked great until I woke up to find him upside down in his car seat and that put an end to that.

Turns out the kid had GERD and was only comfortable upright; he HATED to be on his back. He was a horrible sleeper and we got a lot of opinions and two really stuck out for me - my grandmother and my friend who was a nurse - and they both said to put him on his stomach. We did that starting around 9 or 10 weeks and that kid has been an amazing sleeper ever since!


With kid #2 I tried to be good and do the whole "Back to Sleep" thing - I mean, crikey, their dang clothes say it - but that lasted about 4 weeks when Josh couldn't take it anymore. He walked into the guest room (where Pickle and I had been stashed for sleeping), took her out of my arms and put her down on her stomach. She went right to sleep. I didn't even bother trying with kid #3; pretty much as soon as she was home she was sleeping on her stomach. She did sleep somewhat upright in her Boppy for a few weeks until she would slide too far down. I put a twin bed in her room and she would sleep in the Boppy next to me and then eventually in her crib while I slept in the room with her.

The thing with all three of mine is that they all slept through the night quickly so they didn't really need me for nighttime feedings. There wasn't much point for them to sleep with me. With each one I felt guilty for leaving them in their beds to go sleep in mine but they have all loved their crib and now their beds so in the long run I know they are happy sleepers. New Kid wouldn't have it any other way . . . it is her happy place. I'm not sure we will ever get her out of the crib.