The Family Bed

I am a nurse. A NICU nurse to boot. As such, I am armed with an arsenal of both necessary and unnecessary knowledge regarding my tiny patients, I have a multitude of tricks up my sleeve on how to do any number of baby related tasks, and I am responsible for knowing, teaching, and demonstrating the safest ways to care for any baby.

For example, the family bed. A controversial subject to be sure. I'm not going to get into the pros and cons of co-sleeping, nor unleash (many) of my own personal opinions on the subject. I will say that, as a nurse, it is part of my job to explain and reinforce to parents that every baby needs it's own bed, preferably a crib, and that sleeping with your baby is NOT safe, be it on the couch or in a King-sized bed. Especially those premature and otherwise compromised babies, who are already at higher risk for suffocation. In fact, if parents don't have a crib when baby is ready to go home, we at least get them a Pack-and-Play for baby to sleep it. It's a serious thing.

I will say that, in my own house, Libby is expected to sleep in her own 'big girl' bed. There are some minor exceptions to the rule, and then there is Libby's own personal preference. She is fond of sneaking up into my bed in the middle of the night, and has gotten stealthy enough about it that I oftentimes don't wake up until she has commandeered a majority of the mattress real estate. For such a tiny kid, she sure is a bed hog! Sometimes we can go weeks without her trying to share my bed; other times, it is a nightly occurrence. We've been on a good streak for about a week.

Until last night.

I was beyond exhausted last night. It was mama who almost fell asleep during bedtimes stories, not Libby. Over the course of four days I had worked a night shift, an evening shift, a day shift, AND a call shift and it had taken a toll on my body. But somehow I made it through Libby's bedtime routine, and before I knew it she was all tucked in bed. And this mama changed into jammies, opened up a book, and promptly passed out. All before 9 o'clock.

It was heavenly. And I must have slept pretty hard because I woke up just before 2 am to this:

While I slept, my little monkey had snuck into my bed, but not before she'd brought along and settled SIX of her baby dolls. Unbeknownst to me, my bed had turned into a family bed. While I teach parents on a daily basis that you shouldn't sleep with your baby, I apparently had never told this to my own child. (On the positive size, she put all of them except one to bed on it's back. Go Libby!) Oh well. I let her (and all of those babies) sleep, and I snuck down to the guest room for a little more room.

For a night, I guess it was okay. As long as it doesn't become habit.

love always, Kendra