And…one more on the topic.

A pertinent reference re: co-sleeping and changing that habit…

This week’s prompt for Illustration Friday was “warning.”

Perhaps it’s because my mind is primarily in parental mode that the idea that came to mind for me was “what would I warn other new parents about?” There are so many, many things that could answer that question. But the one that has been pressing on us of late is, do not, if you cherish your sleeping space even just a teeny, tiny bit, ever let the babies in your bed. You will Never.Get.Them.Out.

We’d never been co-sleepers with Q as a baby. She’d always slept in her own bed, on a fabulous routine, and we’d always slept without her in ours. It was safe, sane, very mundane and regularly wonderful.

Then we moved in the cold of November (two weeks shy of her first birthday) to central New York (where there was some snow on the ground already) from central South Carolina. It broke my heart to think of her alone in that big crib of hers in our drafty, cold, 100+-year-old rental house, so it started as just snuggling together till she fell asleep and moving her to the blanketless crib. She often would wake (cold sheets! no blankets! whaa?). Then it progressed to us tired parents staying asleep and neglecting to do the move, as she stayed asleep, all snug between us. Winter was warm and toasty and mostly full of sleep-through-the-night wonderfulness.

Then we had L, and D and I had both agreed it would be 1)unsafe and 2)totally nuts to bring an extra person (much less a newborn) into bed too. So, in the beginning, we were really good about keeping L not only in her crib, but separate, in her own room (we tried skipping the pack-n-play sleeping). But L was a more intense baby than Q, needing reassurances and tending to more frequently than I’d anticipated. So, we did put the pack-n-play in our bedroom (the frequent trips across the hall were killing my sleep patterns) and that helped some. Then, winter came, and L was totally not happy with that. She’d caught a few colds and her hands were freezing cold every time I’d nurse her, so the guilt of sick little infant + freezing extremities (despite our best efforts at swaddling!) = another Williams in the bed. Sleep was once again restored, and all was good in the world.

Now, Q is just a few months over 4 and L is 2.5. They’re both average height, in the 50th percentile exactly, but do they ever spread out. Neither kid needs to be sleeping with us, and we do the baby moves to their own beds once they’re asleep…but in the middle of the night, they often wake and need to come back into our bed to settle back to sleep. By the time they’ve settled, we grown-ups have already konked back out, and in our bed they remain till morning. When D complains about the feet to the head/back/crotchal region and the need to sleep over the edge of the bed, etc.

I know it’s a pain (all that shifting about, just to find they re-land back in the bed by next morning and the squishiness factor), but I really actually love the warm snuggliness of cuddling my two special girls in their sweet, (mostly) angelic states of sleeping tranquility. One day, they will be too big to want to be in bed with us. Egads!

I’m starting back in with a submission for Illustration Friday. I think my last submission was in March of 2005. ! Apparently, I toiled away at a prompt but did not submit on April Fools Day of 2005. Dang!

This week’s prompt is “Swarm.” When I hear the word “swarm,” I think of James Marshall’s Miss Nelson Is Missing and the line, “I know! Maybe Miss Nelson’s car was carried off by a swarm of angry butterflies!”

Though, my damsel here isn’t so much in distress (or being carried away, for that matter)…but it does seem the velvety green butterflies have quite the affinity for her loose tendrils.

Hmm, it’s now Friday, so I may technically be a bit late to the party. Hoping I can still slip on in…

Swarm: Pen & Ink Drawing, Digital Coloring