Let Sleeping Babies Lie

In their own cribs for crying out loud!  I am tired of whiny mothers who co-sleep with their children or who keep them in their bedrooms in a bassinet next to the crib complain about how they don't get sleep because their babies don't sleep.  I'm also tired of them whining about how when they do try to put them down in their cribs, they hate it.  Well, duh!  It's because they are not used to sleeping in their cribs because they never have done it.  You have established a pattern of letting them sleep with you or in your room with you so that's all they know.  Don't you know once you start something with a child it is REALLY damn hard to stop?  Both of my children slept in their own cribs the very minute they came home.

Jerry spent the first week on an air mattress in Kaitlyn's room.  He had to get up and turn her soother on a few times in the beginning and she was fine.  I do have to admit that she did nap in her bouncy seat during the day.  It was the only way I could get her to nap during the day without having to run up and downs stairs every 30 minutes.  I tried the pack and play at first, but she would wake up as soon as I put her down.  She only napped for 30 minutes at a time, so it was so not worth it to take her all the way up stairs, then come all the way back down to get some work done.  She also napped every hour and a half so that would have been a lot of running up and down stairs and with a chihuahua trying to deliberately trip you on your ever move, it just wasn't worth it.  However, at night, she ALWAYS slept in her crib even if it took and hour to get her to fall asleep.  I didn't want to start a habit of putting her in bed with us.  First, there is no room for mommy, daddy, baby and Peanut.  Second, Jerry snores like a freight train.  She would have never gotten to sleep with all that noise.  When she turned 6 months, I did put her down to nap in her crib.  I knew she would be starting daycare and she needed to learn how to nap in a crib.  I would lay her down with her paci and lovie in her crib, turn on her music and make sure her shades were closed.  In the summer I would turn on her fan because she had a south facing room and it would get really hot in there.  She has NEVER had a problem sleeping in her own bed, ever.  When we transitioned her to her toddler bed, she did have a little problem at night adjusting, but we also just moved into a new house.  It lasted a whole week and she's not had any problem since.

Tyler was a little different.  For some reason, house in Florida are not built for cold.  We are the sunshine state, but it still gets cold here.  The year he was born was super cold.  It was so cold, it was snowing on the day after he was born!  Our house was definitely not built to withstand the cold.  His room was like a freezer.  He could not sleep in there for the first week.  I also had to make modifications in his room so he could sleep in there during the winter.  I had to put blankets in his windows so the cold air wouldn't seep in.  We also had to leave his bedroom door open and turn the heat on to 85 which caused us to have two months of $400 electric bills.  He also slept in heavy pjs, socks, a swaddle blanket, a hat and gloves on his hands.  I felt comfortable with him in there as long as the door was open and the heat could get in.  He used to be able to fall asleep anywhere, but now because he's so used to sleeping in his crib, he can't fall asleep on his own anywhere else.  All I have to do is rock him a little bit with music playing softly in the background and then kiss his little noggin when I lay him in his crib and he falls asleep instantly.  His nighttime routine is so established for him, he literally closes his eyes as soon as the lights go off.

Maybe my kids are angels or maybe it's because with both of them, I didn't start anything I wasn't going to continue for a long time.  It's really not that difficult people.