Co-sleeping & Breast Feeding

        When I was pregnant and even at the beginning after Noah was born I was very against co-sleeping. I thought it could create too many problems down the road on trying to get baby to sleep in the crib. But after a few months and many, many sleepless nights my view changed on having baby sleep in bed with me. My mom told me in the beginning to try getting some sleep with Noah next to me because literally he didn’t sleep for like the first 3 months. He was a horrible sleeper then and still is to this day. Breast feeding on demand on top of the no sleep was exhausting. Schedules aren’t a good thing and are pretty unrealistic to have when you are breast feeding. Breast milk is digested a lot easier than formula so usually your baby wants to eat more often. When we moved Noah into his own crib at first, there were periods where he would sleep 4-6 hours straight through the night and it was great. I was very proud of our little boy. But then he would go through a growth spurt and would be up every 2 hours on the dot. Now he is still in this rut of waking up every 1.5-2 to nurse. It’s awful and very tiring. Even though I’m a stay at home mom (SAHM), it’s tiring; mainly because he doesn’t nap for more than 30 minutes at a time. So I don’t get more than 1.5-2 hours of straight sleep and no sleep during the day.

Needless to say I don’t really know how to handle it. When he wakes up, he starts screaming and stands up in his crib right away. I’ve tried letting him cry it out but I really believe it’s just not going to work for him. He just gets angrier and then starts falling down in his crib and hurting himself. I’ve tried just comforting him whether it’s rocking him or singing to him, that doesn’t work. He gets so restless and won’t stay asleep; so I end up nursing him and he is back to sleep in a matter of minutes. But then 2 hours later he is awake again. Usually I can handle this for the first half of the night but come 3-4am in the morning, I’m exhausted and tired of getting up so I bring him in bed with us. He sleeps great then until like 8am.  On nights where he just sleeps with us, he only wakes up like twice and all I do is nurse him lying down and we are right back to sleep. There is no getting out of bed to nurse him so I actually get a good night of rest.

So my point in writing this blog is to give you a little idea of what goes on in the life of the Kensinger family and to give you an idea of what breast feeding is like for us. I wouldn’t change it for the world. We both worked very hard to breast feed and we’ll stop when he is ready. Breast feeding is the best thing for Noah and I know I’m giving him everything he needs to build a strong immune system. I know not every breast feeding experience is like this but I think it is more common that you would think. Noah is pretty much a happy baby although teething is kicking his butt! He laughs and plays but doesn’t sleep well. So co-sleeping right now is a must for us. And there is nothing better than waking up in the morning to a passed out little boy. He is just the most precious thing in the world! Usually when he wakes up, he spits his pacifier out and starts blowing raspberries right away. It’s hilarious.

I’m a 25 year old, breast feeding, baby wearing and now co-sleeping mom and I love every moment of it.