My child is one week shy of 17-months-old and she has never slept in my bed with me.

Until last night.

Around 2:15pm Little Bug awoke and called out for me. No crying, just a “Mama”. I figured she would go back to sleep. Remember, we are in the mountains this week and we are sharing a bedroom…

Fifteen or so minutes later, when I hadn’t heard Little Bug again, I assumed she had gone back to sleep as I figured she would. Just as I was nodding off to sleep again I heard another “Mama” with a little cry. It startled me back awake. Little Bug continued with this and I lay in bed wondering what on earth I was going to do.

Our family cottage is small. Really small. Like 800 square feet small. If it wasn’t for the rain sound track that Little Bug sleeps to still at night (and has since she was 6 weeks old) I don’t know how she would ever sleep here because she would hear every little noise of family members moving about the cabin.

So, there I was laying in bed wondering what I was going to do if Little Bug started crying and woke up the entire household!

I knew immediately what was causing Little Bug to wake up. She wanted her Mama and she had not had enough “Mama time” over the past couple days. Hey, I am here all week with family around 24/7 and I had been taking advantage of the help and sleeping in and letting family members take care of Little Bug.

I could tell from her cry and the way she was saying “Mama” she just wanted me and she wasn’t hungry, sick or laying in dirty diaper.

But as I lay there I had visions of getting Little Bug out of her pac n play and her thinking it was morning and time to play… at 3am in the morning. And then I had visions of bringing her to my bed only for her to think I had taken her to Gym Class and it was time to roll and crawl all over the bed… at 3am in the morning.

So, I decided to go to her and tell her Mama was right here and she needed to go night-night. The moment I put her back to bed she started crying and calling for me again. Great! (By this time I am sure every one in the cabin was awake and wondering what was going on with Little Bug.)

She just wanted me and I knew it in my gut. So I did something I’d never done before.

I brought Little Bug to my bed.

She wrapped her little self around me, nuzzled her face into mine and didn’t try to crawl all over me and the bed. Several times, when I thought she was (finally) asleep I tried to move her to sleep beside me instead of the crook of my arm. She would cry and say “Mama” and snuggle back in.

So, that is how I lay for the next hour and a half. Yes, lay because there was no way I could sleep like that! Around 5:30 I could tell she was good and asleep because she was finally not restless and constantly moving around. So I rolled her onto her belly beside me. She was okay with that as long as I was still touching her.

That is how she stayed until she woke up at her normal wake up time. I, however, slept only an hour (before this had all started) and never really went deep into sleep because I felt like I had to keep an eye (or an ear) constantly on Little Bug in the bed with me.

Co-sleeping is not my cup of tea but it certainly served a purpose for us last night. Little Bug got her time with Mama.

Today, I spent every waking moment with Little Bug and I am praying for a peaceful night of sleep for us all!

Oh, and I’m not sure how anti-Babywise people can say that Babywise makes babies unattached to their mother and it makes mothers not be able to discern their baby’s cry.

I’d say Little Bug is slightly attached to her mama and that her mama knows her cries. :)

- Elaine