Friday, May 3, 2013

Dirty Little Secrets

I have a couple of friends who are brand spanking new moms, or soon-to-be brand new moms.  And you know how that goes...they're all "I'm never going to let my kid sleep in bed with us" and "My kid will not be the kid who plays on the Ipad at dinner" and blah blah blah....

Yea, well, fast forward four-ish years and you get to where we are now.  I'm not going to name names here, but I've had some real good laughs with my "old mom" friends about what we said we wouldn't do and what we do now to survive.  Especially when it comes to sleep.  Amazingly, for many of us, the sleep issues aren't with our little ones...it's the big ones that are  pains in the asses challenging in the sleep department.  Here's just a sampling of the s*** that goes on...{please hold all judgements until the end} 

I'll start with my family: Jenna sleeps on our floor. No she doesn't start in her room. No she doesn't have a bed in our room.  She sleeps on.our.floor. We have a rug (I mean, we're not THAT bad) and she uses a large blanket as a sleeping bag. But we put her to bed on our floor.  And the worst part, we (usually Mike) have to lay with her 'drawing letters on her back' until she falls asleep. This can take 10 minutes or 45 minutes. 

And now for some of my friends (in no particular order):

Friend #1: Four year old sleeps in his own bed Monday through Thursday with Dad on the trundle bed.  So basically in his room, with Daddy.  On "family" days, he sleeps in Mom and Dad's bed with Mom and Dad. 

Friend #2: Kid falls asleep in his own bed in his room. Every night comes out and sleeps the rest of the night on the couch.  No parent present (I don't think).

Friend #3: Toddler bed moved into parent's room.  Kid sleeps in her bed in her parent's room every night.

Friend #4: Kid sleeps between Mom and Dad in their King sized bed. She goes to sleep with no hassle and it's easier than fighting every night. 

Friend #5: At almost 2 years old, the younger kid is still sleeping in his parent's room.  The older one was a great sleeper and you don't mess with a good sleeper by having kids share a room.

Friend #s 6 and 7: (very similar situations) Kid sleeps in their own room in their own bed (amazing!)  but requires several blanket adjustments, ice cold water refreshments, and/or bathroom breaks throughout the bedtime process and sometimes throughout the night.  One of them even has a little brother sharing her room.  

Friends 6 and 7 are rock stars in my book. 

Now, I KNOW there are many of you out there who think co-sleeping is the way to go.  But let me just say that no one on this list came out of the gate planning to co-sleep or share a room, it just happens.  And I would say that maybe it's because most of my friends live in apartments where the kids have to share a room, but truth be told, most of these "sleep challenges" were going on way before baby #2 came along.

So those of you new-ish moms judging right now (old-ish moms know better than to judge), you should probably keep your thoughts to yourself.  And come talk to us in a few years....

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