Co-Sleeping With A Toddler

When Rianna was still a baby she does not have her own nursery. Instead, she has her crib beside our bed and sleeps the whole night and during nap time there. It was easier for me to attend her needs during the night when she stays in our room. It is easy to breastfeed her during nights. She never sleeps through the night since the beginning. At first, it was because of her colic until she has other issues, which is the skin allergy and dryness which is very itchy at night making her so uncomfortable and hard to fall asleep.

She was about one year old when I started letting her sleep on our bed with us. It was that time, wintertime to be exact when she has very dry and itchy skin due to dry air. I have never realized it right away. I thought it was because of her stomachache. She woke up in the middle of the night crying, crying and crying. It honestly irritated me because I needed some sleep too. Every night, I lied down beside her, rub her belly and legs until she falls asleep. It takes a while to put her to sleep. As soon as she finally fell asleep, I put her back on her crib and sleep there until she wakes up again. She wakes up around 1 am or 2 to feed. After having her milk, she continued sleeping with us in our bed until morning. We kept doing this until now. At first, she sleeps on her own bed and later she moved into our bed until morning.

Co-sleeping is fine with us. However, there are times when hubby got tired of Rianna kicking his face while he sleeps, he sometimes moved to the other room and sleep there until morning. Rianna does not like small space that is why she likes to sleep in our bed where she can move around. You know, when she occupied the whole bed, and you were there on the edge trying to sleep in a very tiny space. I know most everyone experiences the same. In fact, we transitioned her from a crib to toddler bed when she turned one and a half, but because toddler bed is small, she does not like it.

When she turned two last month, we converted the empty room as her own room, hoping that she will sleep there alone and stop co-sleeping with her. Well, even though she has her own space now, she still loves coming to our bed now and then. Every night I lied down with her in her room to make her sleep. When she fell asleep, I left her there alone. I moved to our bedroom and sleep. It was very nice having our own privacy sometimes. Baby girl sleep in her own room, and hubby and I have our own space and alone time. There are times when she sleeps through the night alone in her room. Most of the time, when she woke up around 3 or 4 am, she went to our bedroom, touch my face to wake me up and ask me to bring her to our bed. Sometimes I do not even notice she is there already. She walked quietly and never cried which was a good thing.

Right now, I am trying my best to help her get used to sleeping in her own room alone, every night and during naps. We are completely okay with co-sleeping with a two-year-old, but we also need our own space where we can sleep well and good. If Rianna co-sleep with us, it ended up us all tired in the morning because she either kicks us or she claimed all the space as her own. However, co-sleeping made us closer together as a family. It is also easier for me to take care of her when she has itchy skin or if she cannot sleep. I honestly not comfortable not seeing her all the time. I want to be with her as much as I can, even during sleeping time. In short, co-sleeping is fine. It is a good choice we have ever made. It is nice to cuddle before we sleep. Watch her sleeping tightly, hug and kiss her whenever I want even if she is sleeping, are some benefits of co-sleeping.

So, this is my own experience of co-sleeping a two-year-old toddler.