There was one thing my husband and I vowed when we had our son almost six years ago: no sleeping in our bed. And he never did. Not even once. Until he was 4… and I decided that I wanted to sleep with him. I wanted to cuddle him and fall asleep to the sound of his methodical breathing. And I figured, “I’m allowed. He’s mine. I can do whatever I want.”
So I let him.
Now I know what you’re thinking: the end of the story is that I have a 6-year-old kid who won’t leave my bed. True… but it’s not because of him. It’s because of me.
I love it. I love co-sleeping.
My husband does shift work, and it’s never the same shift, and quite selfishly, I sleep better when it’s my son and I. We have the same early-to-bed, early-morning routine, so it works better for me. My hubby graciously takes the bean’s bed, and he and I share the bigger bed.
I still test the waters and make sure he’s still okay sleeping on his own, so he’s most definitely not in my bed every night. And he’s fine – he knows that if he starts making a fuss about always sleeping with us that we’ll put an end to it forever. So he’ll casually ask over dinner, “Am I allowed to sleep in your bed tonight,” and if we answer, “No, bud, tonight you sleep in your bed,” he concedes no problem.
I know I will only get to sleep with my son for so long, to cuddle him and hold his hand while I drift off to sleep. So if I can, and it isn’t hurting anyone (like making him more dependant or less of a good sleeper), I’m gonna.
A full-time work-from-home mom, Jennifer Cox (our “Supermom in Training”) loves dabbling in healthy cooking, craft projects, family outings, and more, sharing with readers everything she knows about being an (almost) superhero mommy.
