Co(erced)-Sleeping, Our Version

This is in response to Co(erced)-sleeping: how we share a sleeping space with our two year old.

Co-sleeping is alive and well in our household.  The situation has evolved over the past two years, and the current version looks like this:

The Ideal Co-Sleeping Position

Only one parent is present, because our queen size bed is getting too crowded.  (More on that later.)

The crib was an artifact of our earlier attempt to remove FBB from our bed.  Now its primary functions are guard rail and storage for extra clothing and diapering supplies.

However, that is far from the truth.  Dad is usually the one who sleeps with FBB, and the most recent version of the reality is more like this:

Co-Sleeping, Dad's Reality

First, we have a toddler who has never liked being covered.  And he cries if he’s not comfortably warm in sleep.  We have to dress him warm, but he complains when we starts to put the third layer on him.

Then, there’s also the problem of FBB liking to sleep on top of someone, particularly people he loves.  The more he loves you, the more likely he is to sleep on top of you.  Apparently, he loves Dad very much, because he is sleeping on Dad’s neck lately.  Dad woke up in the middle of the night and complained to me about suffocation.  (Dad also said he wanted to punch FBB then.  I was not surprised.)

On the off night when I’m the one sleeping with FBB, I am greeted with a different problem:

Co-Sleeping, Mom's Reality

(I don’t usually sleep with him because my presence seems to excite him too much–it takes longer for him to fall asleep, and he wakes up more easily.)

Obviously, he loves me even more dearly than he loves Dad, because he literally sleeps on his tummy on top of mine.  And even if I managed to get him off my core and just sleep on my (soon-to-be-numb) arm, he stills wants physical contact with me so much that he demands the cover off me.

Nowadays, Dad consistently falls asleep with FBB, leaving me with a few hours of alone time to read, watch TV, surf the web, and tackle one of the many craft projects I’d like to try.