Sleeping Arrangements

Elise sleeps in our room. We have a travel crib/playpen that has a bassinet set up and she sleeps in that. When she was first born, I pulled the crib right next to the bed and slept just a few inches from her. I've been slowly moving the crib farther away, but she's still pretty close by.

If I weren't so incredibly paranoid because of all the stuff I've read about SIDS, I'd totally co-sleep with her. In fact, sometimes I let her sleep in bed with us in the morning, for an hour or two. But never all night. I trust my body to lay still and be attentive even in my sleep when her presence is uncommon, but I'm afraid that if I let her sleep with us all the time I might drop my guard and something bad could happen.

She's so beautiful when she sleeps.

She has her own room. With a full-sized crib and everything. But I like having her near me, I don't want to have to get up and walk to another room in the middle of the night, and I think she's more comfortable knowing I'm close by.

I accidentally became an "attachment parenting" sort of mom. I didn't realize this until I said to myself one day "what IS attachment parenting?" and Googled it. Breastfeeding on demand? Check. Carrying the baby around all day? Check. EC? Check. Like I said, we don't officially co-sleep, but I do the next best thing by keeping her next to me in my room and occasionally in my bed. So, check.

There's no real checklist of what constitutes attachment parenting, but those things I just mentioned are often associated with attachment parenting. The idea being that you are hugely responsive to your baby's own rhythms instead of making the baby conform to your schedule and that you gently and lovingly guide your child rather than give her rigid boundaries regarding her behavior.

Hippie Mom. Did I mention that I hardly brush my hair anymore?