Things I Said I'd Never Do as a Parent #73

Okay, so I haven't really listed 72 other things I said I'd never do as a parent, but I'm sure there are plenty.  So I'm estimating this is somewhere around #73.  I remember a spirited conversation a while back (right after I found out I was preggers, actually) with two women about having your child sleep in bed with you.  Neither of the women knew I was pregnant at the time.  I was very adamently against it - as a regular occurring practice, anyway.  Sure, when a kid is scared or sick or needs some extra comfort, it seemed ok for him/her to climb in bed with mom and dad, but I had very strong feelings about that being the rule, rather than the exception.  Guess where my kid sleeps 95% of the time now?  I think the books officially refer to it as "co-sleeping", although I think that sounds a little too business-like (like being co-managers, or coworkers or something).  Others refer to it as the "family bed", but I think that just sounds weird.  Have you seen the film "Away We Go"?  It has a great scene that shows the stereotypical hippie family bed (if you're a new parent, or about to be a parent, you should totally check it out - fantastic little film!). 

That is NOT what I'm after.  I remember when he was just born and we were at our first pediatrician's appointment, the doctor very emphatically told us that baby should sleep in our bed, under any circumstances.  I nodded my head in fake agreement.  Little did he know that our first night home, we slept (if you can call it sleeping) in our bedroom with the lights on, with the little bundle cradled cozily in my arms.  Soon we were able to get him to sleep in the bassinet beside our bed, and eventually he graduated to the crib in his own room.  He did pretty well there for a few months.  We developed an unwritten policy - if he woke up any time after 4AM, we'd bring him to bed with us.  Eventually, his sleeping patterns got all jacked up, and any progress he had been making towards sleeping through the night went right out the window.  The only way he would sleep was in the bed next to me.  I found this frustrating beyond words.  He'd fall asleep in my arms, and when I would oh-so-gingerly transfer him to his crib, he's wake right up.  So here we are, all co-sleeping in our well-designed Ikea family bed.  It works.  For now.  If there's one thing I've learned over the past nearly-14 months about parenting, it's that you must be flexible and adaptable, ready for things to go exactly the opposite of how you had planned.  I realized I could try to get him to sleep in his crib, and I'd be up a million times a night OR I could let him sleep with us, and get a relatively good night's sleep.  When mom and dad have to be at work in the morning and need to at least appear alert, the need for decent sleep wins (for us, anyway).  I've also realized that nothing is permanent with children.  What works this week might be a total no-go next week.  And that's fine, we've learned to just go with it.  In related news, we have a Keurig coffee maker...it makes a killer cup of coffee (with no fuss or clean-up) in less than two minutes.