To co-sleep or not to co-sleep

One of our first challenges was trying to get her to sleep. The first night she was just so precious that we couldn't put her to sleep in that big cot all by herself. If I tried to put her down in the little snuggle bed that we bought to go into the cot she would wake herself up in ten or fifteen minutes. Which was no good for either her, Mr KR or myself. I eventually worked out that she was only interested in sleeping on top or next to me, which meant that our shiny new cot was going to waste.

We had two home visits from midwives in the first couple of days and they were very concerned that Miss Z was sleeping in our bed with us. Which made me very nervous. But still she wouldn't sleep anywhere else aside from next to me in bed. I found it amazing that when she was sleeping next to me I wouldn't move a muscle and kept her cradled in the curve of my arm. She was so little that it was easy to keep her away from pillows or the doona or other dangerous smothering type things.

I then started frantically reading my baby books, one of which Baby Love didn't seem to mind co-sleeping and another What to Expect in the First Year seemed to think that co-sleeping was the path to grown children who are still in their parents bed and 12 year olds who are breastfeed. Which was worrying.

But still it was the only way that she would sleep at night. During the day she would sometimes go to sleep in my arms and be transferred into her cot but night time was a different story. I suppose that it is because babies days and nights are reversed as they were lulled to sleep by the day time motion of the movement of their mum and so night time is party time. It takes a little while for this to change so in the meantime Miss Z was only happy next to me.

Co-sleeping seems to be a polarising issue in the baby world. A large number of my family seem to have strong objections to this, even though it is really only in the western world that we expect newborn babies to be all by themselves after so long as part of their mum. So after about seven weeks of co-sleeping I was getting a little tired of being kicked while the baby was sleeping so we have been able to move her to her snuggle bed which is at the foot of our bed. However it was great to have her next to me for eight weeks and sometimes she still sleeps next to me.

The first days

After a blogging hiatus of over six months I thought that I might create a new one to chart my new life as a mum and to record the progress of my little girl in suitably gushing terms. So far it has been pretty amazing - a rollercoaster of love and tears. This new blog will also hopefully help with the major internet boredom that has overtaken me, there is just nothing interesting to look at anymore. All my blogging friends have stopped posting, facebook has lost its thrill, the news sites are just dull and I have never really enjoyed you tubing (which sounds like some kind of adventure sports activity).

I haven't decided if this should be shared with friends as my last blog, I Don't Like It, led to several instances where I put my foot in it when either I didn't realise that friends were reading the blog or when people took offence at things that I didn't mean to be offensive.

Blog rage is a real thing people.

So at this stage I may just keep this little blog to myself and see how I go.

Anyhoo.....back to motherhood.

The first couple of days were just a blur of confusion while we were working out what we were meant to be doing with this little bundle that we brought home from the hospital. Luckily, like most newborns Miss Z was mostly interested in sleeping and food. Also luckily Mr KR was a gem and we worked together in a blur of sleep deprivation to try to understand the needs the new member of the family.

The first hurdle was a direct result of bad hospital food. As the food at the hospital was so bad and I was starving after the birth we decided to go home at 6pm on the same day that Miss Z was born. It was great to get back to our own space but around 8ish she started crying and we didn't know what to do. We were both up all night pacing the floor, singing to her, looking in bewilderment at the crying bundle. When we were visited by the midwife next morning she told us that Miss Z was probably hungry. We didn't realise as during her first 12 hours in the hospital she mainly slept so I was expecting her to only want food every four or five hours.

Tip number one for new mums, breast fed babies need a lot of food in the first couple of days. It can even be every hour or so especially at night.

If only people had told me this Miss Z would have had much less traumatic first 24 hours.