Monday, December 17, 2007

Joys of motherhood-Nursing (aka Breast Feeding) and cosleeping

As soon as I posted my thoughts on insomnia and before I got a chance to go downstairs I heard my baby's precry- the small cry which is on-need-to-know basis which if not answered within 1/2 a minute becomes a loud cry for all-who-can-please-come-and-help which if not attended to within a minute and a half or so becomes a i'll-wake-up-the-nighborhood-if-i-have-to yell. But I digress.
I attended to my baby, went to get some tea, and thought of something else I'd like to type about- nursing and co-sleeping.
There are lots and lots of health benefits to breast feeding ( a term which I prefer to use but which I think i'll substitute with nursing because it's shorter:)). But that's not the sole reason why I chose to nurse my son.
Ever since my good friend Yelen told me (when Eh was still an infant) that she used to nap while nursing her baby, my life hasn't been the same. Gone were my backside pains from sitting forEVER day and night, at least 20 minutes at a time trying to make sure Eh's eaten enough. Gone were the nights when I'd catch myself snoozing with an infant on my lap ( something silimar to falling asleep on a subway and waking up with a start cuz your head fell on your chest and squeezing the handles of your pocketbook greatful that it's still there).
Cosleeping was discovered!
How convenient is it to just plup the hungry baby next to you, the baby eats, you don't know when both of you fall alseep. The next thing you know it's the morning and you got pretty decent amount of sleep!
With SiM things were even less complicated. If I'd nurse him and we cosleep, I'd never really have to wake up, much less get out of my bed to feed the baby! And I won't even have to think of going downstairs to make fresh milk every time a baby woke up- blah! Plus, the health benefits...
[His bassinette is actually next to my bed, cramping up the bedroom (and moonlighting as a closet) but I can probably count on my fingers the times that he'd slept there. ]
Lately, I'm beginning to think that I'm a victim of my own laziness yet again. My baby monopolizes my bed leaving me a little space on the edge( though even if he was more polite and took the edge, I'd have to politely decline since my bed has no side rail). I fold myself on that little space so that I don't hurt him in my sleep, waking up stiff almost every morning. Also, since food is readily available to him, he sees no shame in asking for it every 2 to 3 hours (more frequently, if he isn't feeling his best).
Last Thursday, when I got a crippling (though thank Gd very temporary) back spasm I decided to overcome my fear of sleepless nights (though at this point, I literally have to fear only the fear itself since sleeping in intervals is not your average good night's sleep) and evict my son from my bed! Maybe putting it in writing would make it more official...Don't know, but so far he is enjoying my bed ( as I type) and I'm thinking of rereading subwife's cosleeping post.

2 comments:

Ookamikun said...

One time Shlomik had gas or something and wasn't going to sleep. I put him on my stomach and went to sleep and so did he.
That's all I got.

SubWife said...

You know, I have those thought every now and then, recently even more often. Every two weeks I say, this is it, ever since he was eight months or so... And then I look at him and lose my nerve. So cute, so cuddly. He's 20 months now and still not evicted... If you have to do it, don't look him straight in the eye, otherwise, you will get all misty-eyed, and post benefits of co-sleeping on your blog, like some of us did.