Two men in my bed...adventures in co-sleeping

When we were making plans for the first weeks of our baby's life both J and I felt it was important that he stayed closed to us at night. We looked into co-sleepers which attach to the side of the bed but they didn't work with our bed frame so we then settled on a sweet little mini bassinet which sits on the bed between the pillows and lets baby sleep with us but without the risk that we could roll over onto him!
We have loved having him close by for the first month and it has made getting up in the night to breast feed much more manageable in my tired opinion!

Our doula once commented that sleep deprivation is bad enough that they use it as a torture device in some places. That makes us feel better about complaining that we are tired. I think it's funny that some friends have commented about the fact my Facebook status updates have become 'parent-ified' because they are all about sleep. It's true. I think about sleep a lot these days. I have come to the conclusion that it's not something you have to think abut when you are able to get a good solid 8 hours a night. When that diminishes to blocks of 2 hours at a time - sometimes less - you can't think about anything else.

The tiredness is tough, and it makes everything more difficult, and for me more emotional. After a bad night, everything makes me cry. I mean everything. I just can't cope. I know that hormones come in waves too so when they hit on the same day, forget about it. Game over. PJ's, warm blankets and lots of cups of tea are all I can manage. But in the midst of it all, the sweet family moments we share at night going to bed, and waking up in the morning have been totally worth it. Waking up and looking over at my sweet baby and lovely hubby sleeping soundly is the best thing.

However, the other night I did wake up in the early hours to both J and Levi snoring away! Oh brother!

I love turning over and seeing my little man peaceful and sleeping beside me. It's especially lovely because it wasn't happening very often. Our little guy was really struggling at night time. Recently, he has been doing better and last night he did a 5 hour stretch from 11pm-4am. It was amazing, and pretty funny when Jeremy and I woke up to Levi's cries asking one another if they had got up with him previously because we couldn't believe he has slept that long!

Levi struggles with gas pretty bad, and often his sleeping is disturbed by gas pains. He grunts and wriggles and then eventually lets out a big fart and then settles down again. I am hoping as his little system gets more developed this will be less of a problem for him and let him sleep undisturbed and peacefully for as long as his little body needs.

I know that our days of co-sleeping will be coming to an end pretty soon as our baby boy and his big appetite will be growing out of his little bassinet soon so I am cherishing these days.

I am sure this will not be the last post about our sleep adventures but I'll end it in summary of our adventure so far...we thought our baby was broken for a while because we couldn't get him to sleep more than 2.5 hours at a time, but over time he has figured it out with no intervention from us and is now doing some 4 and 5 hour stretches *loud cheering*.