[blparent] Co-sleeping

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Erin,

We all have those gut instincts, and it's our jobs as parents to do what
we believe is right. Our children live with us; we alone know what they
need and how best to handle them based on experience. So many methods
and products and material are out there offering help and advice, but we
have to follow what we believe is best. Short of harming a child in some
way, no one can judge us or be condescending because we use a different
way. You're the one in the situation who has to make choices on a daily
basis. We all have that parental instinct that guides us.
Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 08:52:54 -0700
From: "Erin Rumer" <erinrumer at gmail.com>
To: "'NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List'" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [blparent] Co-sleeping with toddler
Message-ID: <000601cc9589$a8ae38b0$fa0aaa10$@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

Thank you for further explaining yourself Bridget and for understanding
my points.  I still don't prefer to let Dawson cry it out even at nap or
bed times because at his age we really don't know his reason for crying
and I'd hate to leave him to cry and it be because he's scared, confused
or in pane or for any other reason.  I totally think that older kids can
take advantage of parents in their own way to get out of napping or
sleeping but that's further in the future for us for sure.  My problem
that I was explaining in my original post was that Dawson merely didn't
want to sleep in his crib and not that I had problems getting him to
sleep in general.  One night out of the blue when he was ten months old
he woke up screaming like I've never heard him scream.  We are only left
to wonder what caused him to wake up in that state but whatever it was,
it was enough to change his attitude toward his crib from that point on.
After contemplating every possible scenario my gut told me that
something was genuinely bothering him and not to push the issue with
him.  He was always a fabulous sleeper and I didn't want Dawson to begin
having a negative attitude toward bed time because I'm forcing the issue
of sleeping in the crib.  My behavior with him before this episode
didn't change so I knew that it wasn't him trying to get into our bed
because I wasn't bringing him to bed with us before that.  Thankfully
the problem is solved in a way that makes us all happy.  Dawson and I go
into our bedroom around 7:30 and after playing quietly for a bit, I
nurse him in the dark and quiet room until he falls asleep which doesn't
take long.  I tried to watch a show on television for my own
entertainment while nursing him to sleep and this only worked for one
night and then every other time it kept him awake and he thought it was
play time.  That was quickly remedied with the television going off
after we played quietly for a little bit to get the wiggles out.  Now
that our mattress is on the floor Dawson can be safely left once he's
asleep and I can leave the room and have some time to myself or get a
few things done before I go to bed.  Dawson's got a great internal
clock, so he tends to wake up and start talking to me in bed about ten
minutes before daddy has to get up for work which is perfect because is
slowly arouses him instead of a loud alarm clock screaming in his ear to
wake up.

Problem solved,

Erin