who cares?

As most of you know, Hayden sleeps with us. I used to be embarrased and not tell people because I didn't want them to think we were crazy, but now I absolutely love it and I don't care who has a problem with it. It works for us and that's all that matters.

When Hayden was born he had some pretty severe heart rate and breathing issues for the first 2 weeks. He had Bradicardia and RDS (Respiratory Distress Syndrome). He also had jaundice so bad that the nurses affectionately called him "pumpkin". When he was released from the hospital after 2 weeks, we were told to check him every 30 minutes to make sure he was breathing and his color was ok. It was too unsafe to have a 4 pound, 2 ounce baby (his weight when we left the hospital) sleep with us, even on the couch or in a chair. Matt's boss gave us a basinette on wheels and we would move it around to suit our needs throughout the day and put it next to me at night so I could wake up with my phone alarm, check him or feed him if it was time and put him back. Needless to say, we weren't sleeping AT ALL and Matt was working full time because it was Preseason and he had to. Finlly after about a month of this, Hayden didn't have any more scares where his color got funny and we were able to let him sleep longer without making him eat every 2 hours, so we were able to sleep a little better. We brought Hayden's crib into our room so I could still feed him easier and I still wanted to be able to peek at him every now and then.

He actually slept in his crib from around 6 weeks old until right after he turned one. Then all hell broke loose. Hayden got pneumonia and we spent 12 hours in the ER waiting for a diagnosis, followed by 24 terrible hours of waiting for the antibiotics to kick in. A lady at Hayden's old school brought her daughter to school a couple of times that season with pneumonia and since the administration doesn't follow a very strict sick policy, she was never sent home. Hayden of course picked it up since he was a preemie and didn't have the greatest immune system at that point. He slept literally on top of me for 6 days, 24 hours a day while he was sick and after that would never sleep in his crib again. We tried several things like crying it out and "The No-Cry Sleep Solution" but he just never bought in to any of that. He slept well after that ordeal, snuggled next to us for months and months.

About 10 months ago, we took apart the crib and put it in storage and Matt surprised me with a toddler bed and Elmo bedding one afternoon. We put the bed next to the wall, touching my side of the bed. We asked him one night if he wanted to sleep next to me in his bed and he said, "Ok" and has been in his bed since then. We periodically will ask him if he wants to move his bed to his room and sleep by himself and we always get the same answer, "Nope, I like sleeping with Mommy and Daddy." It's actually kind of comforting for me, and for Matt as well because we can just reach over and touch his head anytime we want to check on him. And waking up is the best...He crawls on top of us and says, "Get up! It's time to have breakfast and play!" I just wish he would sleep in past 5 am some days...but that's not happening so oh well. I have decided that he won't be 35 still sleeping next to us in his toddler bed, so who cares? Just had to share that, I have seen lots of stuff lately about it being unacceptable to sleep with your kids and I don't feel that way at all.