Co-Sleeping: I Understand the Appeal Now!

(written last Friday)

Last night was a bit rough.  I was in the office until 7:30pm, which meant when I got home, I could do a few things around the house and get to bed at a decent hour, finally!  Sleep, I longed for sleep and was very excited at the prospect of a solid 8+ hours. 

I got into bed around 9:30pm.  Put my head on my pillow and heard crying.  Her timing is impeccable I tell you!  When Emily typically cries while she is sleeping, it's short lived and she's usually asleep within 5 minutes.  NOT LAST NIGHT.

I don't think the poor thing slept more than 3 hours total.  Throughout the night, we gave her tylenol, motrin, milk, water, we rocked her and patted her tummy/back while she laid in her crib.  At one point in the wee hours of the morning, I was laying on her floor trying to comfort her by reaching into her crib and rubbing her leg or arm.  Steve went in several times and rocked her back to sleep, but as soon as she went into her crib, she cried and cried and cried.

This is VERY unusual behavior for Emily, so something was wrong, we just didn't know what it was, and still don't.

At 4am, bleary eyed, frustrated for her and for me, I picked her up and brought her into our bed.  In our house this is totally taboo.  This is the first time we have slept with a child in our bed, can you believe it?  To each his own, but co-sleeping is not our thing. 

Emily tossed and turned, crawled around a little bit, shoved her hand in Steve's face while he was sleeping, kicked me a handful of times, and continued to cry off and on for the next couple hours.  On the rare occasion when she was able to sleep for 20 minutes or so, she was the cutest, most peaceful, adorable, cuddly little human being I have ever seen.  I now understand why parents do this.

This is not going to become a habit, but we should make this a special treat from time to time and not rule it out entirely.  Of course, only when we have enough sleep reserves to get us through the next day, because those little bodies move around a lot when they sleep and I don't think Steve or I would wake feeling very rested.

I am hoping for a better night tonight for our little Miss Em.  We have a big day tomorrow and it will be in all our best interest if she has a good nights rest.