Sleep Paranoia

Hannah has been sleeping in her crib since before she turned three months old. While she liked her bassinet, she just grew too tall and moves too much in her sleep to slumber in there for long.

For the first few nights, Chris and I slept in our room and we had the monitor on. But it didn't work. I either couldn't hear the monitor, or when noise did come through, I didn't trust it.

I would get up every couple of hours to investigate, making sure she was OK. She didn't wake up, but it was almost like regressing from those first few weeks home from the hospital for me. Every few hours my body would wake up, get up and then not be able to fall asleep - even though now my baby slept peacefully the entire time.

I couldn't sleep peacefully. So Chris began to sleep in the single bed we have in her room, Hannah was in her crib, and I was in our queen bed all alone. A couple of weeks ago, we switched and now I sleep in her room in the single bed and Chris has the queen bed to himself.

I am 100 per cent convinced that Hannah doesn't care if someone sleeps in her room with her. As long as someone comes to her in the morning to change her diaper, get her breakfast and allow her to start her day that's all she really needs.

It's all me. I sleep better at night knowing if she moves the slightest I am near by. And being near by, in a bed, I can determine whether or not I need to physically get out of bed. And if I don't, it makes it a lot easier to just roll over and catch some more zzz's.

I know I'm not alone. A lot of my friends were smart enough to just set-up cribs in their rooms so everyone would be together as long as they wanted. Our bedroom is more than ample to put her crib in there, but we'd have to do a lot of re-organizing. And the whole reason we have a single bed in her bedroom (save for the one person who visited us before she was born) was so that one of us could sleep in there if necessary.

And right now, for me, it still seems necessary.

Oddly enough, here it is, a weekday morning and Hannah is napping in her crib. Am I in her room with her listening to her every breath? No. Do I go into her room every 10 minutes to check on her to make sure she's OK? You bet I do.

I'm sure eventually I will grow out of this stage as she becomes older and more self-sufficient. After all, if we ever have another baby, and I still feel the need to be right beside Hannah, the only room that could fit all our beds would be the living room...

Do you sleep in the same room as your baby? If so, are you sleeping with your partner too?