Co-Sleeping, No-Sleeping

Every night, I go to bed with plans to make it through the night without being woken up by a not-so-wee-anymore babe. Every morning, I wake up with that babe next to me wondering how she got there. She wakes up like clockwork at 10:30 or 11 p.m. — so regularly that I almost can’t fall asleep until she’s woken up. I then put her back to bed and she lasts about 20 minutes or half an hour until I’ve fallen asleep and don’t have the energy to fight her to get her back down in her crib. It’s a vicious cycle that I need to break, but it’s tough. I get okay sleep co-sleeping — I’m at least in my bed rather than on her floor or in the rocking chair — but I’m always tossing and turning, getting us both comfortable. God forbid one of the other two kiddos joins the party.

This video is such an accurate representation of what it’s like to sleep with a toddler. There is much hair pulling, eye poking and nose picking involved.

But then there’s also those morning kisses, huge grins and warm snuggles that make me want to co-sleep just a little bit longer, even if it is against my will.

Anyone else fighting the toddler co-sleeping battle? I’m hoping she’ll surprise me by sleeping until 7 a.m. one of these days. It could happen, right? —Erin