Operation Freedom of Sleep

We Want Our Bed Back!

Currently, Ace and I are encountering a small amount of resistance from one very persistant little guy! It's a little war at home I like to call "Operation Freedom of Sleep." What's our goal here? To regain our bed from the grasp of its little dictator.

Okay, all creativeness aside, Ace and I just want little Acey to start sleeping in his own bed now that we have a new little one on the way. Why else does he need to sleep in his own crib? Aside from the obvious...First of all, he's 16 months old and hasn't spent a minute inside that thing since we first brought him home from the hospital. Second, I'm getting bigger now (in my 22nd week of pregnancy) and need to have as many pillows propping me up in a comfy position as humanly possible. Third, when you have a big Ace, a pregnant lady, and a little Ace in the middle of your queen sized bed, it doesn't leave much room to move especially when the little Ace likes to sleep in postions that would make a contortionist jealous! We're talking, feet in your back, stomach, and if your extremely un-lucky, a baby big toe in your face!

How did we get to this point??!!

Majority of new parents that find out they're having a baby have the joy of setting up a cute little nursery with all the matching items and crib for the baby in its own separate room. We however, did not have this luxury simply due to the fact that we were renting a condo at the time that did not have much space(in which we would be moving from soon thereafter), and Ace and I felt strange leaving a newborn in a room all by itself after bringing him home from the hospital and awaiting his arrival for the past 9 months, we wanted him close to us. At first, that meant just having his bassinet next to our bed. But, since I was breastfeeding, as many moms know, you get up in the middle of the night several times and often are too tired to sit up and feed the hungry little one for the next half hour. So I did what a lot of moms do: I laid little Acey down next to me to feed him and he would drift off to sleep soon after. How wrong could that be? Once I stopped breastfeeding, I thought that would be it, and Acey would go back to sleeping in his little crib next to our bed.

However, with Ace's job change which meant him moving to graveyard shifts, I was alone at night, and having Acey in his crib just seemed to far for me! So he just started sleeping in bed with me while daddy was at work. This arrangement worked well for us until Ace's days off. Some nights, Acey would sleep all night in his crib while Ace and I slept peacefully in our bed. Other times, he would wake up in the middle of the night and want to join mommy and daddy in their nice warm bed . This began happening more and more frequently, giving Ace and I backaches upon backaches and sleepless nights. Thus, we were left with the difficult decision of having to start the dreaded "sleep training."

Currently we are in day 5 of Operation Freedom of Sleep. The first couple of days were rough and filled with lots of tears (from both Acey and me!). It was hard to have to put Acey in his crib and hear him cry for us to get him out. It would take about 30 minutes for him to settle down and fall asleep, but there was a lot of middle of the night waking too.

Babies are amazing creatures. They are empty vessels just ready to take in whatever you give them. Even the least flexible child (what I consider Acey to be) who sometimes cannot even stray from his routine for an hour at a restaurant, can adjust to new things. Every new step such as trying solid foods or giving up the bottle, we as parents thought it was going to be extremely hard. In actuality though, those were our fears-not our baby's. Those things proved to be relatively simple (he gave up the bottle in just about a day!). And now, in day 5 of our operation, we've made giant steps toward regaining our own bed back. Acey now goes into his crib at bedtime without any fuss whatsoever and falls asleep on his own! I even had the joy of sleeping in our bed by myself (Ace was at work) last night-oh so comfortable!

Operation Freedom of sleep accomplished...Next, the Battle of the Binky!