in his crib, what?!

Going into baby #3 I knew that we would choose to co-sleep.  I think it is just so much easier for me and we both get better rest if we just sleep together.  I know that some people (including doctors) are completely against this method and there are risks involved (like rolling over onto the baby) but I also know some people (including doctors) think it's the best thing for the baby for emotional reasons.  I don't really agree or disagree with any of the experts out there (I really haven't read too much about it), I just know that I need sleep to keep up with 2 other kids and that getting up 5 times a night to nurse a baby or comfort a baby just isn't going to work for me.  So from day 1 Titus was in bed with me.  My original goal was to have him completely switched over to his bed at 6 months old (July).  I told Mark that was the plan and he was such a good sport with sharing our bed and being kicked by a baby and such for the 6 months.  Well, July came and I did start putting baby in his bed at night but he would somehow magically appear in our bed at some point in the night -- and then he got a cold and wasn't sleeping well at all so he was back in our bed full time. A few months went by with no changes, by then Mark decided our queen sized bed just wasn't big enough for the 3 of us so he started sleeping on the couch.  Well, a few more months went by and baby was still in our bed and Mark was still on the couch so it was time to give the crib another shot.  So the day after his birthday we started putting him in the crib at bedtime.  Things were pretty good for several weeks and he would just be up once or twice a night.  I'd nurse him once and then Mark would go in and put him back the second time.  A few days into this new routine Titus was extremely exhausted from crying it out (for about 10 minutes) and fell asleep like this...

sitting up in the corner of the crib.  When I went in to check on him I was sure he was just sitting up quietly being mad about being stuck in the crib, but I went back in a few minutes later and looked a little more closely to see he was in fact sleeping sitting up.  :)

In case you want to know the rest of the story - he did pretty good getting up once or twice a night for about a month and then decided that wasn't enough and would sleep until about 1am and then would get up just about every hour on the hour from 1-7am and then when Levi got up shortly after 7 either Mark our I would get out of bed with him, only for him to need a nap by 9 which he would easily sleep 3 or more hours in a row without waking :)  After about a month of this, it got OLD FAST.  We didn't really change anything other than letting him cry a little longer in the middle of the night instead of rushing in to get him.   He is now back to waking up about twice a night again although many nights it is 3 times.  I'm not really sure what the deal is and both of his brothers were great sleepers by the time they were 14 months old....I have commited to not bringing him back into bed with us in the middle of the night (however, sometimes at the 6am wakeup call he does make it back into our bed) and have not once gone back on this...I just am longing for the day that I get more than 4 hours of sleep in a row again (I mean it's only been about a year and a half)-- but am really trying to remember just how fast this season of life goes and that one day I won't even really remember these sleepless nights.

So with that being said, who wants to have my baby over night?  HAHA.  just kidding, I really don't think I'm ready for that yet!