Co-sleeping

Kaitlyn, someone who has started reading this blog, recently shared this article with me and I found it to be really helpful in engaging in the conversation around co-sleeping with your infant.  I appreciate that she distinguished between co-sleeping (sleeping near your infant) and bed-sharing (sleeping with your infant).  Both practices are incredibly common and recently with the fan-fare of the TIME article on attachment parenting, co-sleeping discussions are back in the news.  

As a parent, I assumed co-sleeping meant sleeping WITH your child.  In general, I was not a fan of the idea.  We did have Ruth with us on occasion, and then later, when nursing was easier, I would have her with me in the early morning.  But otherwise, if she was with us, I wasn't really sleeping.  So, we opted for the bassinet and later for the crib.  I also believe both of those practices to be the safest for our baby.  

I was actually intrigued to learn that co-sleeping isn't necessarily bed-sharing.  I'm not sure how wide-spread that notion is, but I find it helpful.  

I also think it's interesting that others have labeled me a mother who ascribes to "attachment parenting" when I hadn't even heard of it until Ruth was a year old.  I am a mother who does what I think is best for my child, though I don't think I prescribe to a particular model or technique.  (Although, truth be told, I am a HUGE proponent of Happiest Baby on the Block).  

I believe parents should do what is best for their child, and I believe that will be different for each child. I also believe parents should seek out information about how to care for their children, how to parent (in a variety of ways), child psychology, child development, and seek out wise and good examples for parenting.  Parenting is hard work and it can be easy to do what is easy or what your parents did without thinking about what habits or behaviors you might be forming or fostering for your child without even realizing.  What we do matters.  All of it.  And that shouldn't drive us to paranoia or insanity about each and every decision, but it should drive us to care about what we do and how we do it.