Got a sleep solution?

When I got pregnant, I read a lot of books about pregancy, birth and parenting. The Dr. Sears approach of natural childbirth was very appealing to me. I too thought I would want as few interventions as possible and knew for sure that I did not want to labour strapped into a birthing bed. I wanted to try things like a balance ball, massage, a hot tub session or two, walking around, etc (though I kept an open mind about the drugs which worked for me because I ended up getting an epidural at the end...next time I'll probably get it earlier ;0)

Anyhow, I was very lucky because our hospital shared the same philosophy. They have obtained a baby friendly certification from the United Nations for their nursing policies. The nurses were fantastic (everyone was fantastic) and they were an incredible source of knowledge and information and did not let us leave until nursing was well-established and all our questions about parenting were answered.

One of the things they asked us about was our planned sleeping arrangement with baby. We told them we had a nursery with a new crib set up in the bedroom next to ours. They suggested we might consider letting our baby sleep with us in our bed instead as recommended by UNICEF and the Foundation for the Study of Infant Death. We were worried about crushing him but research shows that the risk of rolling over your baby is very slim (unless you smoke, are very tired or under the influence of drugs or alcohol). Turns out that the same sense that keeps you from rolling off your bed at night keeps you from rolling onto your child (isn't nature wonderful?). Anyhow, after reading some of the documentation they provided, we decided to give it a try and I am so glad we did.

Sleeping together has been one of the sweetest part of our last 9 months together -- not to mention that it made nightime feeding sessions so easy that I can honestly say that I was never exhausted as a new nursing mom, not even during the first few weeks! And nothing beats waking up and seeing your smiling baby next to you (or even better, watching your baby wake up in the morning). Daddy likes to have him in bed with us too because it means he gets extra cuddle time with the baby. And our baby is a very secure, good-natured sweet boy who loves to cuddle with mommy or daddy, but who is just as comfortable playing on his own. So no regrets here.

The problem now though is that our 9 month old sleep crawls! Yup, you read that right. As soon as he turns onto his stomach, he instinctively pushes himself up on all fours and starts to crawl...even though he is still asleep! And I am just terrified that he will crawl off the edge (which on our king size bed is pretty high). We tried to put him in his crib the past couple of nights and both times it was really hard and completely unsuccessful.

We've tried putting him there when his eyes start closing by himself, but the minute he realises where he is, he starts to scream and cry and pulls himself up on the bar. We've tried going back in after 5 minutes to comfort him, but he cannot be comforted. He'll only stop crying when we get him out of there (which I know only teaches him that we'll get him if he cries loud and long enough...I watch supernanny!). But I am a loss as to what to try next? Should we let him cry it out? For how long? Is there another way? Have any of you managed the transition successfully? If so, please do tell. I need all the help I can get.

And because we can't think of any other way to get the word around, I too will advertise for Krista's parenting book blog-along every post until we start. If you want to read Wayne Dyer's "What do you really want for your children" book with us and blog about it chapter by chapter once a week, go see Krista to sign up. I think it'll be really worth the exercise. Parenting is something we don't talk about very much. It's almost taboo. Yet, we can gain so much by sharing our experiences and this is why I am really looking forward to seeing how everyone relates to the topics in the book and how that translates to their parenting styles. Hope you'll join us ;0)

Cheers!