Never works that way, does it? No, it doesn't. Dylan had begun sleeping with us out of necessity during our trip in the U.S. And then teething kicked into full gear. It was just so easy to pluck him out of his bed in the middle of the night when he was crying and put him into ours. No, it didn't fit in with my WWTBWD (that is "What Would The Baby Whisperer Do?") mothering philosophy but what was the harm? He stopped crying immediately. He slept until morning, and it was just so sweet to see him slumbering peacefully in the middle of our bed. Sometimes he'd snuggle up and put a tiny little arm around me. We were all snug as a bug and happy.
Then little by little, he began turning into a co-sleeping monster. He could no longer go to bed at night in his own bed so one of us would have to leave the dinner table and go lie next to him in our bed until he fell asleep. We knew it was bad. But we thought, "It'll only take 20 minutes, so what's the big deal..." Then when he fell asleep, we'd transfer him into his own bed. Until he woke up in the middle of the night. For a while, he'd wake around 5 a.m. and we'd put him in our bed. Then it was 4 a.m., then 2 a.m., then midnight. So basically he was sleeping in our bed all night. And had begun making demands. He was no longer the slumbering angel taking up a postage-stamp piece of bed. He'd grunt if the TV volume was too loud, so we'd have to turn it off. He'd make a nasty face if mom's bedside lamp was disturbing him so she'd have to stop reading before bed. I was just waiting for him to start complaining about thread count. He'd thrash around and kick until he had the entire middle of the bed and Cristiano and I were falling off the edges with no sheet or blanket. And getting kicked all night. And no sleep.
I'm afraid to say that the family bed is no more. Dylan has been exiled to his own bed. It hasn't been easy for us either. He didn't fuss or whine or really cry. He actually seemed more pissed off, and I think he's holding a grudge. He's not his usual happy-go-lucky self these days. I hope he gets over it soon.
P.S. In my continued efforts to innovate on my blog, I'm adding a new feature. When you see the frozen clothes pins symbol on the lower left of the page, it means I'm having a bad laundry day and waiting, waiting and waiting for things to dry. Fall is here and there's a chill in the air today. Too bad Dylan vomited on a down comforter.
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