19 WEEKS PREGNANT BABY SIZE

It's times like this that I wonder how parents who don't co-sleep with their young kids manage. Maggie couldn't sleep last night due to congestion, so I took her from Bryan so that he could get some sleep. Usually when she sleeps with me, she goes down on the mattress on the floor. After only a few minutes, I brought her up on the bed with Carter and me, she was that bad. I was awake most of the night listening to her trying to breathe. I can't imagine trying to care for her without having her there in the bed with me. I wouldn't have gotten any sleep otherwise.

I never imagined I would be the type of parent who co-sleeps with their children. I admit, I thought the idea of a "family bed" was a little weird. At first with Maggie, it was just the easiest way for me to feed her every few hours. I tried to put her in the bassinet one night early on, but I couldn't leave her there. I kept trying to see her over the bars of the bassinet. The only place I felt she was safe was right next to me. Whenever Bryan or anyone else asked when she was going to move to her own bed, I put off making any kind of definitive answer. The truth was that I was hooked on having her sleep with me! I couldn't imagine having her sleep anywhere else, much less in a barred crib in a room by herself. I was still nursing her to sleep at night and occasionally during the night up until a few weeks before Carter was born, so I always used that as an excuse.

Now as a seasoned parent of two, though, I feel like I shouldn't have to make excuses for parenting the most natural way I know. Mothers in other countries are flabbergasted when they find out how most babies in the U.S. sleep in cribs. Most babies in the world sleep with their mothers. I know it's not for everyone, but it's definitely the best for me and my family. Even though my babies wake up several times during the night, I hardly lose any sleep because I don't have to get up. While I was working, I couldn't imagine not co-sleeping, spending eight to ten hours a day away from Maggie and then putting her to sleep for another ten hours by herself.

All logistics aside, I love sharing sleep with my children. Maggie was never a cuddly baby, and she's certainly not grown more cuddly as an independent two-year-old. She does however get cuddly when she sleeps. Carter has always been a better sleeper, and he's not averse to touch like his sister. However, I still can't imagine sleeping without him. I know there'll come a day when they will both sleep in their own beds without Bryan or me. I intend to enjoy every moment with them until that day comes.

Marjorie and I were on our own today while Carole went to work. We thought, "Piece of cake!" Were we wrong! We were sorely outnumbered, Carter and Maggie were hung over from their car trip yesterday, and Kaiden had decided that he wasn't going to let two perfect strangers take care of him today, at least not without putting up a fight. In the video, you can hear me ask Marjorie to get a pacifier for him. I think by then we had realized that we should cut him off at the pass and not let him get worked up. The only thing that seemed to calm him (besides a bottle) was to walk him up and down the sidewalk outside. He's pretty heavy, though and that got tiring. We were both pretty happy when Carole got home.

Last night I ended up moving our sleeping quarters in the middle of the night. I had to wait for everyone else to go to bed before pulling out the couch, and Maggie was getting really punchy. After I finally got everyone asleep, Bodie, their cat, decided to hop up and check us out. He's a great cat, but a little too friendly, and I was worried that he might try to sleep on the baby's head or wake Maggie up. After fighting with him for an hour to get off the bed, I decided to move the whole shebang into the baby's room. He's still sleeping in a bassinet next to Carole's bed, so now they just use it for his stuff. I carried all our stuff in first, then moved Maggie to the floor, then Carter to his car seat, then the sleeper mattress. It wasn't easy, and Carter started fussing before I could get it all arranged. Then Maggie woke up from the floor and dragged herself halfway onto the mattress before falling asleep again. It was an ordeal, but we, or should I say, I slept much better the rest of the night. It worked out really well, because Maggie took a good nap in there today without being disturbed.