Support

I have been receiving emails from the list-serve of the Greenhouse Birth Center moms group in E. Lansing. Below, in italics, is an email sent by a mom looking for support in her decision to co-sleep. Underneath it is my response.

Hi everyone,
I just put away our un-used Pack N Play bassinet, after having this charade going on in my
mind for 9 weeks that we'd use it eventually. I was so determined all day yesterday to try it
out last night, but when the time came it felt so wrong to have Fenton sleep 3 feet away from
us. I was so lucky that Brandon agreed that there was something "not right" about not waking
up with him - and it just can't be wrong if we BOTH feel that way.

I'm feel really, REALLY guilty about all of the money spent on this stupid thing by my in-laws,
not to mention the obscenely expensive crib they bought us. Can someone please remind me
that things bought simply can't override what our instincts are telling us?

And WHY didnt' I just register for a bigger bed? :-)

Amen, sister! I know exactly how you feel. My parents drove the crib I used as a child from Maine to Kansas, so my first son, Sam, could sleep in it as a newborn. We dutifully set it up. My mom and I ceremoniously cleaned it, washed all the crib sheets, put on the matching crib bumper with little fringe on the top...and Sam never slept more than one nap in it. By the time he was 6 mos. old it had been taken down and stored...guilty feelings accompanying the entire process. Still we moved the crib across the country to our current home in Washington State and I, again, went through the same ritual, without my mother this time, as I grew closer to my due date with my second son. Arlo is now one week from being 6 mos. old and he has never slept in the crib. I have never changed the sheets from the first day I put them on. It has become a good place to sit Sam's stuffed animals.

And I have realized the magnificence of co-sleeping. I love the mornings when I wake with all 3 of my boys (husband included) in bed and soundly sleeping. I love watching their sleeping faces.
I was thankful we are a co-sleeping family when Arlo, at 2 weeks, woke with a 105 degree temp, limp and unable to nurse. We rushed him to the ER to learn, after a spinal tap and multiple IV attempts, that he had a kidney infection. If we hadn't been co-sleeping I may not have heard his soft whimper. I can't even imagine what could have been the outcome.

So, you go girl for following your instincts in what is the hardest arena of life to do so, parenting.