Co-sleeping: When sleep is at stake, nothing is off limits

Co-sleeping. The very word makes me shudder a little bit. Before Everett was born, I always thought of co-sleeping as something hippies did. I rolled my eyes at the term “family bed” and thought the whole idea was, to be quite frank, somewhat unhealthy. Not to mention dangerous.

What if I rolled over on him in my sleep?! What if he suffocated against my pillow? What if he broke out of his swaddle and suddenly learned to crawl and crawled right over my body and fell onto the floor? I’m actually not the paranoid parent, but even I had a few concerns.

And then I went four straight weeks without sleeping and all hell broke loose.

We started off slowly. An hour here, an hour there. We’d take him out of his bassinet at 5am and into bed with us for the last hour when we were too tired to play the pacifier game (Everett cries, we get up, put pacifier in Everett’s mouth, get back in bed, pacifier falls out of Everett’s mouth, Everett screams, repeat). It was amazing how quickly he stopped screaming once he got into bed with us. Eyes closed, he would cry and cry until the second his tiny body hit the bed. And then? Silence. Golden silence.

Sometimes he even SMILED. My husband and I would fall back asleep within minutes and we’d all get up totally refreshed. Okay, that’s a lie. More like, slightly less zombie-ish.

After the first few times, we became more relaxed about it. Sometimes Everett would wake up at 3am and after five attempts to get him back to sleep, we’d give up and plop him down in between us. And every single time, he fell asleep within seconds. SECONDS! It was AMAZING. We had a super bed! With super powers!

And just like that… we became co-sleepers (*shudder*).

And you know what? Sorry but I’m not sorry. We are all sleeping better. Everett’s happy, mommy’s happy, daddy’s happy. Done and done. I know it won’t last forever. As soon as Everett learns to sleep through the night, we’re giving him the boot to the crib (mark my words). But, for now, I’m going to allow myself to enjoy these extra snuggles, sleepy smiles, and the sound of his sweet breaths next to mine.

Call me a hippie all you want to.

About the Author: Ashlee Gadd is a Writer & Photographer. Founder of Coffee + Crumbs +instagram | twitter | facebook