Cosleeping...
My baby is a horrible sleeper. She is 15 months old (almost, on the 30th!), and not only does she not sleep through the night, lately getting her to sleep at all has been a huge battle. It used to be that she went to sleep relatively easily and then woke up to eat several times a night, with occasional waking-to-party evenings as well. Of course it's sleep, and the one thing I've learned as a mama so far is that sleep is never constant with babies. She's perpetually learning, her brain is growing, her body is growing, her mind is making huge leaps all the time, so it's no wonder. Not to mention teething, yikes.
But boy, waking up next to her is such a delight. Even when I'm exhausted, even when I'm thinking "Oh please go back to sleep!" (which is often), Bella's wake-up calls make me smile. She will often sit up next to me, and start hollering... "AH!" Very short kind of staccato sound, until I wake. If that doesn't work she will start patting me impatiently, and finally she will start climbing on me, pushing my shirt out of the way to latch on. Usually she is all smiles, so that there in the gloom the first thing I see when I open my bleary eyes is that beautiful, radiant smile. I wind up beginning my day with nursies and covering her with kisses, which in my not-so-humble opinion, is a pretty amazing way to start a day.
It does, it makes up for all the sleepless nights. Tonight she just couldn't fall asleep and I wound up having to drive her down. She fell asleep in her carseat holding her baby doll, which is the first time she's done that. I adore her.
