I didn’t choose to be a co-sleeping parent, it chose me.  If my children would have slept in a crib I probably would have let them.  I would get even less sleep than I do even if they slept all night because I am constantly afraid any sleep time away from me means they are dead.  If my youngest son sleeps longer than an hour in his bed I start checking his breathing.

Co-sleeping is the right choice for my family.  My husband would be fine without it, but most husbands would.  I like to remind him, and myself, that our babies are only babies for a blink of eye in the grand scheme of our lives.  I want to soak up every minute of their baby time.  I’d love to bottle their baby essence and keep it on my night stand for the future times when I will need it.

For now, I still have a baby.  He won’t be one much longer, but he is still my baby.  We have co-slept since day one this time.  I gave birth to him in my bedroom and laid down with him in my bed for our first co-nap.  He sleeps in his bed for naps, and even spends some time in his bed for a few hours at night when we are lucky.  I know he won’t sleep there forever because I’ve already been down this road.  I didn’t ruin my first son for life by sharing a bed with him.  He is now a champion sleeper in his own bedder, and sleeper through the nighter.  He is even better and napping.

I practice Co-Sleeping safely.  My children have never once fallen out of the bed, or been smothered with a pillow.  I’ve certainly never woken to find myself sleeping next to a baby holding a cleaver.  

I make choices for my family based on facts and based on instinct.  The bad publicity co-sleeping gets lead me to believe it was equal to killing babies when I first had my son.  But my instincts, and his, took us down another path.  I will always hold our co-sleeping days together fondly in my heart.  When it ends for Everett and I will be sad, but accepting as we move to a new chapter.

The dangers of Co-Sleeping lie in misinformation, and lack of information.  If parents choose to share a bed with their child they should be aware of the risks and the benefits.  Scaring parents with ads like these doesn’t do any favors foranyone.