Co-Sleeping Family

Lately we've gone backwards in terms of Baby sleeping in his crib. I don't know what happened. Is it because he's scared of the dark (night light in room and all)? Is he afraid of being alone? Or does he just like sleeping squished in between us? Maybe he secretly enjoys kicking, punching and headbutting us at night. Who knows. All I know is that as of the last couple of weeks, we are officially a co-sleeping family. I've tried putting Baby into his bed after he falls asleep. Sometimes he'll stay for a little while before waking up. However, most of the time as soon as he feels his crib mattress, it's cryingville! For awhile before this, we had tried the crying it out method. Which I didn't really like, but I was kinda desperate. For the first couple of days it was crying for 30 minutes to an hour. Poor baby. I was in bed convulsing with my broken heart. But I stuck to it and after a few days, the crying was less and less until it was no more than 30 seconds to a minute. Victory!! So I thought. Like I said before, we have gone backwards totally. And now when I try the crying method, he just cries and cries. The worst part now is that he calls for me "MOMMY". I cannot handle that. As soon as I hear that "mommy", I break and go get him. (Shame on me...no will power). It's come to a point now that I'd say 4 out of 7 days I don't even try to put him in his bed. Bad on my part, but not having slept properly for...well 16 months, doesn't exactly make me have the best judgement sometimes.

Some people actually opt for the co-sleeping arrangement. Why you may ask? Honestly, I have no clue! Lol! Ok sure, at first when they're teeny tiny and don't move, it's nice having that little bundle to cuddle up to. However, we seem to forget that babies DO grow. Eventually they're taking over half of your side of the bed and half of your hubbie's side (And that's if you're lucky). Pretty much at this point both you and hubby are sleeping (or sorta) with one leg hanging off the bed, one arm resting on the night table along with your head and whatever you could salvage of your pillow. Am I right?? By now it's 3am and your arm is asleep, your leg is freezing and you're silently praying for morning to come. Meanwhile, your little one is sleeping with his butt in your face or his knees in your spine and snoring away! I'm sure most of you who sleep with baby have experienced one or more of these events. Not to mention when Baby decides that its a good idea to sleep on top of you all together and not to wake him up, you don't scooch back into place on the bed that now isn't being occupied. So now you're hanging off the bed AND you have the little bundle on top of you. (Swear.....it's ok sometimes! hehe)

Solutions?
1- I thought about putting his crib in our room. Which would require some removal of furniture or else it won't fit. Maybe when he wakes up and sees that we're there he'll feel safe enough to stay in his crib.
2- Put a mattress in his room and sleep on it for a while (me, not him) until he gets used to his crib and room and doesn't wake up. (I'm sure that wont work...he'll just want to sleep on the mattress with me)
3- Last but not least, I will buy an actual double mattress and put it on the floor and sleep there with him. And slowly sneak out when he falls asleep. At least this way he'll get used to sleeping in his room. Could it work? Who knows!

So that's it! If anyone had the same problem as me and fixed it....PLEASE help! Any suggestions would be great. And one word of advice to all you new mothers or mothers to be. Yes it's cute to have your baby in bed with you when they're born....DON'T DO IT! Let me tell you....next baby I have, straight to his\her room. (That's what I say now....) Remind me to read this post if ever I don't follow my own advice!

So with a headbutt and a good elbow in the eye, I say Goodnight!! *eye roll*

Ni- xox-