Sleep story

Over at one of my new favorite blogs, girlsgonechild dot net, Rebecca posted a sotry about co-sleeping with her adorable daughter. It brought back so many cherished memories of those kind of nights and mornings with Ava. She asked for the readers' sleep story to be entered into a giveaway. Not that I need the bouncer that she is giving away, but I love contests and I love my sleep story so I posted and I thought I would share with you what I wrote.


My sleep story is more of a no-sleep story.

Ava has been sleeping with me since the night she was born. She is now 2.

When her father left us in the hospital the day after she born the only thing that kept me going was Ava. I never wanted to let her go because she was literally my life. The nurses all yelled at me for letting her sleep in my arms. For some reason it was against hospital policy for babies and mothers to sleep together. WTF? I didn’t listen, she slept with me ever night for the week we were there.

Then when we got home I couldn’t even think of not being close to her. It made nursing much easier and we both slept better cuddled up with each other. Sleeping completely alone at that point would have broken me. Her room was so far away, and what if I didn’t hear her? That was not a chance I was going to take.

I started dating Justin when Ava was 3 months old. We didn’t start having over-nighters for the first couple of months but when we were ready for that I really wanted to have the privacy that we needed to take our relationship to the next level…plainly said we really wanted to jump in the sac. So I started training Ava…but somehow she always knows. The minute I walk past my bedroom door towards her she awakes. What? I thought you were sound asleep but you were secretly counting the number of steps I took so you would know which room we were entering? Kids are too damn smart for their parents’ own good, even at that age. But somehow I managed to get her into her own bed for a couple of hours each night, just long enough for me and Justin to spend some time together…alone. But Ava always wound up right smack dab in the middle of us. Neither of us seemed to care though. I loved sharing a bed with the two loves of my life, and Justin was totally embracing being a family.

Ava did sleep in her own bed for a little while after her 1st birthday. It took a lot of work but we got her there. Now she is back in bed with me and I am lacking in the sleep department more than ever. Cuddling doesn’t happen anymore. Ava loves to sleep with my pillow, loves to sleep on my side of the bed, doesn’t want to be touched or bothered, and rolls around like crazy. It isn’t anything for me to get kicked in the face (several times) in the night because she is tossing and turning, I still love feeling close to her but I’m not partial to black eyes. So we’re back at square one and trying to find a way to get her back into her own bed,…for good this time.

By the way…your post is beautiful and captures so well the exact way I felt when Ava was sleeping with me at that age. Waking up to that sweet smell and baby kisses is one of the best feelings ever. Thank you for taking me back to that place.



Anyone wanna share their story? In the mean time how about this adorable sleep picture?