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Three years ago, mother-to-be Marcie Moody simply knew that her future child would be sleeping in their own crib, in their own room.
She couldn’t imagine how parents could let their children share a bed with them, particularly when there were so many risks involved: potentially suffocating the child, hampering their development later in life, ruining your marriage by establishing a bad habit in your child – the list went on.
But once Moody’s son, Michael, was born, she realized that her goal of having him sleep in his own crib simply wasn’t working.
When Michael was teething, the family went on a trip to visit family that completely threw off his routine. Even after they returned home, Michael still refused to settle. He screamed and fussed and refused to sleep unless he was placated by either one of his parents.
“My poor baby was crying himself silly, having more frequent wakings and taking longer to go back to sleep in between feedings,” Moody remembered.
It got to the point where Moody was so exhausted, she once fell asleep with Michael on her chest. “I woke up the next morning to realize that not only had he slept the whole night completely through, but so had I,” she said.
After that, Moody knew her strategy of having Michael calm down alone, in his own crib, weren’t going to work. Everyone in their family needed more sleep, and the most effective way of getting that was to co-sleep with Michael.
Moody’s husband was initially resistant. He, too, had read and heard about all the dangers and fears that his wife had read about before Michael was born. But once co-sleeping became the new habit and everyone was much happier and calmer with more sleep, he stopped complaining.
Two years later, when Moody became pregnant with her second child, Michael was still co-sleeping, and she thought it was about time to transition him into his own bed as she taught her second child to sleep on their own.
“But then Benjamin arrived and I knew I wanted him with the rest of us,” Moody confessed, “his crib remained untouched. Sleeping in the same bed with him made nursing so much easier, and since he's had some health problems, I feel like having him there gives him some extra comfort and allows me to keep a better eye on him.”
Now, Benjamin is one and Michael is three – and Moody maintains that her sons won’t co-sleep with her and her husband forever.
