Monday, February 4, 2008

The Family Bed

We were never allowed to sleep with our parents, even though they had a king and our mom is like 5 foot nothing and keeps to her little corner of the bed. Instead, we had blankies (I say 'had' there like we still don't have blankies) and boom boxes with Brite music instead of our hand over our mom's face.

So yesterday in testimony meeting, this pretty cool new woman in my ward gave this confessional testimony about how when she had her caboose baby, who is 1 now (her other kids are like 11 and 9 or so), they really didn't want to buy a crib, so after she outgrew the basinette, they just gave in and put her in their bed. The thing is, this baby is a little tank - she's not chubby, exactly, but tall and solid, and both this woman and her equally cool husband are tall people.

Anyway, she was confessing that it was getting to be a nightmare so they finally gave in and bought a crib and are now trying to undo the family bed habit, and it has been really horrible for them. Which, that website says "co-sleeping actually provides a safer, sounder sleep for everyone in the household," but I just found this slide show via Apartment Therapy, and it looks like the worst night's sleep that ever was. She's in a sleeping bag! In my experience, if you're changing positions every 20 minutes, and your head is mostly off the bed, you are not getting restful sleep. I have those kind of nights, they often involve talking and walking, and I don't even have a toddler and an Elmo in bed with me. Yikes.

1 comment:

Lady Holiday said...

Another reason not to let your kids sleep in your bed: Dr. Joy always says that letting your babies sleep in your bed causes marriage problems. And I believe (almost) everything that Dr. Joy says. :)