success of a co-sleeper

I could write another entry about how rough the last few weeks have been, but I think the number of posts (very few) over the last 30 to 60 days speak volumes. So, rather I'm going to turn my attention to a familiar topic: co-sleeping.

Had you asked Chris and I two years ago if we planned to co-sleep, our answers would have fallen somewhere between, "What?" and "Hell no!" We had a good laugh watching Sam Mendes' take on attachment parenting in Away We Go and thought that baby-wearing was quaint, cloth-diapering complicated and co-sleeping strange. But I was intent on nursing through the first year, and as a working mom, the only way I could ensure that this would happen was to keep my little guy close.

But, I have to admit, even as my little guy snuggled beneath my chin, I would often wonder if we were setting ourselves up for failure. After all, many of our friends were sleep-training their kids at every step. They would profess weeks of 7:30 bed times and 12 hour stretches of un-interrupted sleep. And even though it seemed to take something as simple as a runny nose or a weekend a way, to throw these families off-kilter, I still questioned, quietly, our decisions.

But theses were unwarranted fears. Because I'm happy to report that on most nights the turtle is asleep, in his crib, by 8:00pm. He self-soothes and he wakes up happy. And there was no fight. No sleep-training. No crying it out.

Oh, we still have our snuggle time. And there are nights we rock and sing lullabies for an hour. But, for the most part, our turtle has a schedule that would make Ferber blush.

Now, I'm the first to say that I have no right, and not nearly enough experience to give anyone advice on child-rearing. I'll just say that Chris and I are "do what works" kind of parents and this is what works for us.