Quote From: wendygrieI appreciate your feedback, but do not believe it is constructive. . There is no set rule that states where a child should sleep, i'm sure my baby would much rather sleep on his mattress in our room on the floor, than in his crib where he would "cry it out." As far as safety. . he is not exactly next to my bed where he would roll under it or get stepped on, he is next to the wall a bit away from my bed, so i would not step on him, even if i were in a rush etc. i would know my baby was there. I believe this is the best situation for my family.
I agree that you should do whatever is best for YOUR situation. No one can know how stressed or crazy it is to have a child that doesn't sleep - unless they've gone through it.
My 19 month old boy has NEVER slept. When he was an infant he was in a bassinet next to the bed for the first couple of months then we moved him to his own crib in the other room where he eventually started sleeping 3 or 4 hours at a time before waking up for his feeding. Then... teething hit and he was up every 1-2 hours. I was EXHAUSTED running from my room to his room to my room to his room -- pick him up, feed him, rock him, put him back to sleep then crawl back to bed only to do it all 60-90 minutes later. And then shortly after that he was starting to pull himself up (he was walking by 9 months). So we had to lower the crib mattress to keep him locked in. Being short I couldn't lean over to lay him in the bottom. He felt me lowering him down and would INSTANTLY wake up again and start the crying all over again.
Totally unrelated, a friend of mine (a Montessouri teacher) gave me a book to read about some of the ideals of their methods, and there was a brief mention in one of the books about how children's rooms should be build for children - things at their height so they can reach, such as putting their bed on the floor.
Well, my husband and I though, what the heck? I couldn't get any worse could it? So, out went the crib. We put his crib mattress on the floor in the corner, and bought a larger single mattress to put beside it and block it in. I was suddenly able to actually get some SLEEP!!! YAY! I didn't have to get up and run from room to room. I would start out in our room then when he woke up after midnight I could just go in and feed him/comfort him and fall asleep there.
VOILA.
He's 19 months old and we still have the same arrangement - two mattresses on the floor - but he sleeps a lot longer now. I put him to bed then go sleep in our room. When he wakes up (usually at 3am) I'll go to his room, give him his bottle of water, and then I usually fall right back asleep on my mattress beside his mattress and he usually goes right back to sleep too. Now EVERYONE sleeps. He's happy 'cause Mommy is close. I'm happy cause i'm not running from room to room all night (especially in the winter), and my husband is happy because I'm not waking him up when I run back and forth every couple of hours! Eventually we'll just take the crib mattress away and he can have the single, but he's always sleeping in HIS room not in Mommy and Daddy's room. So he knows his room is where he goes to bed.
I do have to say - waking up to his happy little "hiiii" and his little kisses in the morning is something I won't part with very easily!
So. DO WHAT WORKS and damn all the advice from friends and family (especially those without kids!!!)
