three in a bed??

"My biggest fear is that my son will sleep in the bed with us forever!"


These are the words my cousin said last night about her son. He's 9 months old and has never taken to sleeping in the crib so he sleeps with her and the hubby. She loves it and honestly wouldn't have it any other way. I understand where she's coming from, because I am guilty of the situation myself. 

Yes, my 2-year old son sleeps with us.
Sometimes in the middle...
Sometimes on the side of the wall where the bed lies against...
Sometimes on top of us...
Sometimes with his whole body on top of all the pillows.


Before I had my son and before I was even pregnant I always told myself, "My child will never sleep in the bed!" Never say never, right?? Yeah that bit me in the butt really hard.


My son has been in the bed with us since he was 9 months old. Up until that point, he was sleeping in his crib. No problems, no waking up in the middle of the night...it was a breeze. Then he got sick. It was the most sick he'd ever been. I couldn't bear to let him sleep all by himself. He was miserable and not my usually happy son. He wanted Mommy and I wanted to cuddle him and make him feel better. So I brought him in the bed with us. I told myself, "It's only for a few days...just until he gets better."


Sure enough, he was better after several days. Okay baby boy, back into your crib! Sounds easy, right? No way...little man had plans of his own. He woke up in the middle of the night, crying his little eyes out. We'd put him back to sleep and lay him back into his crib, only to wake up to him crying again after 30 minutes or so. This routine went on for a few days before we decided to just bring him in the bed with us. The cry-it-out method didn't work for us and we weren't about to try it again. With early mornings and work days, the whole process of him waking up in the middle of the night was just exhausting. 


One thing I've learned with motherhood is that it's very unpredictable. I wouldn't have predicted that my son would be sleeping in the same bed as us, even at his age. It's worked out fine for us. We honestly love sleeping with our son in the bed. Although it has gotten in the way of "cuddle time" with each other, I believe it's a wonderful bonding time. How can you not love cuddling with your whole family? With him growing so fast, it has gotten very cramped in the bed so we're going to need to transition him very soon. We've introduced the idea of getting him his own bed and surprisingly, he's taken in the idea. 

"I want a Thomas Bed!"

Getting him out of our bed isn't going to be an easy task, but we're up for the challenge. I know everyone has their own opinion about co-sleeping with a baby, or in my case, a toddler. I know people who've done it with their children and their kids are perfectly fine in their own beds now. I've even had people say "Oh you shouldn't do that...they'll NEVER leave your bed."


Psh! Never say never, right? ;)