Bringing the baby to bed
I always enjoy looking at the New York Times’ Motherlode parenting blog to see which posts are getting the most comments (OK, I get a little jealous, too. I admit, I’d love for all you lurkers to post every now and then — just click on the “comments” link below. Maybe you’re waiting for a bribe. Free lattes for comments! Er, not).
Anyway, the most commented Motherlode post in the past month was this one on a father’s reluctance to co-sleep despite his expectant wife’s desire to do so. “I feel that our bed is just that — our bed, for me and my wife,” the father-to-be wrote.
That’s a tough one. In my experience, what you decide you want to do and what actually happens can be two different things. In the case of our second baby, he ended up with us out of pure sleeplessness, and we’ve lacked the resolve to move him out. I suppose the upside is that my husband and I are equally as ambivalent about it (he looks so angelic when he sleeps but can jab hard enough with his little toes to leave bruises). On Motherlode, the worried father wanted advice on how to deal with his and his wife’s starkly differing views on the matter. And advice he got — a whopping 231 posts worth.
Loading ...Tags: health sleep
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May 14th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Rachel Turiel says:I never co-slept with my son except the first night he was home from the hospital and he didn’t like the drawer we put him in (he was born 3 1/2 months premature and we were airlifted to Denver and just didn’t get around to buying a bassinette).
My daughter and I co-slept the first few months until she started waking up every 1-2 hrs and I felt like we needed a little separation for better sleep.
It’s a charged topic isn’t it?
Thanks for keeping up with this blog Katie.
May 15th, 2009 at 3:18 am
Anonymous says:Mom Blogs – Blogs for Moms…
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May 20th, 2009 at 11:10 am
admin says:Yeah, I think whatever arrangement leads to better sleep for all involved is the right answer. Our first baby adored his pacifier and was perfectly content in his crib so long as he had it (a funny aside: we started giving him two, in case he lost one, but then he decided he had to have both and would lie there switching between them until he fell asleep). Our second, however, totally rejected pacifiers and only wants to nurse. In the end, the think the best answer takes in both parents’ preferences and the temperament of the child.