Co-sleeping habits

Billy, Desmond, and I are part-time cosleepers: Desmond starts the night in his own room and then at around 1am, he'll cry out and we'll bring him into bed with us.  We have the crib pushed up right against our bed and we'll place him there when we bring him into our bed, but he ends up rolling over to be closer to me (since I sleep next to the crib) and takes up a lot of my spread out space.  Sometimes, I'll put him in between me and Billy but, like I've said before, Desmond hates to be confined under the covers, so we always have to put his little body above the covers, which makes it mighty difficult for me to roll over in any direction.  This diagram explains it perfectly (from Christopher Niemann's NYT blog, Abstract Sunday)

After weeks of sweet-talking, serenading and heartbreaking Ferberizing, we think we have reclaimed our bed. Until a short trip or a quick flu undoes everything again.

Then, the second Billy's alarm goes off at 6:30am, Desmond starts partially waking up and starts rolling around everywhere, even on top of me.  He does this, on and off, for about an hour.





And then he's awake at 7:30am.  It's not so long ago that I can't remember the sweet, sweet feeling of a full night's rest and (weirdly so) that universal feeling of a full bladder when I wake up in the morning and the gratifying release of going pee first thing (every time I wake up because of Desmond, I have to make a trip to the bathroom...so, in one typical night, that's probably 2 or 3 times that I empty my bladder).

I just keep telling myself that someday, SOMEDAY, he's going to sleep through the night consistently. And I, too, will sleep through the night.  And everything will be good and mornings won't suck and Desmond will be a well-adjusted, sleep-loving, well-rested boy and I'll be back to my chipper old self.  Someday...

(Disclaimer: we never Ferberized Desmond, nor are we open to it.  Sorry, doesn't work for us, although we've heard miracle stories of how it worked for other moms.  I think it's important to sleep with Desmond...to give him a feeling of comfort and security that he may lack by being alone in his room at night.  I want him to associate sleep with happiness (as I do) and not have it be a traumatic experience for him in the very least.  So, that's how we roll.)