Managing Bed Hogs

A popular Hyenacart store (For Crying Out Loud) makes wonderful shirts for the lucky kiddos who are lucky enough to sleep share with their parents. Those lovely shirts scream...

bed hog

For those of us with bed hogs, we know that not every night of sleep sharing is full of bliss. Instead it may mean maneuvering pillows and walls to prevent toddler (or you!) from falling out of bed. For many it also means adding to the master bedroom's furniture. 

Our daughter was almost a year old when I first realized that most of my new-found friends also co-slept and they had this wonderful thing in their room called a second bed. While we had a bassinet that our daughter no longer could fit, the crib was unused across the apartment. We had started sleeping sideways on the queen bed to give us more room for our daughter who was sleeping between us, making the "H" in (bed) Hog. My husband's legs were a bit long, even with the platform extender for our drop-in plat form bed, so we moved the crib over as a "side car" for his feet.

 When we moved into our first "home" our master bedroom was large enough so we used two queen beds next to each other. When baby 2's arrival was imminent, and we knew we had people visiting (and also an au pair later arriving), we invested in a king bed. Now, our master bed room has a King bed, queen bed and that crib that's converted into a toddler bed. It often is musical beds at night. For now, it works, and we're comfortable knowing our kids are safe in their beds and we can respond to their needs as they arise, especially on nights like tonight when our 1 year old is facing a cold.

Are co-sleeping kids necessarily more happy? I'd say so, I think she'd say so as well! Oh and this link is great - "security in infancy reduces stress as adults." Many of my friends are posting what they are "thankful" for on facebook, and lately I have come across quite a few that make me smile and remind me how happy (and thankful!) I am to wake up next to one, or both, of my wonderful children.