I never really considered myself a paranoid parent or even an overprotective parent before.
But last night I realized that I have become totally paranoid when it comes to Hannah, especially when she is sleeping. She is a noisy sleeper. You can hear her breathing loudly at times, as she sometimes even wakes herself up from sleep. She sleeps with her eyes open a little bit (like in this picture), which honestly, is a bit freaky (like she is doing now!).
She woke up at 3:30 AM this morning with a little cough, just a little too much saliva or something in her throat. It only lasted a couple of seconds. But it freaked me out a bit, as swallowing difficulties is one of the big symptoms to look out for with her.
She’s still sleeping in the pack’n’play in our bedroom. I wake up a few times a night for whatever reason just to make sure I still hear her breathing. As much as I know we need to move her to her crib, I’m just so paranoid that something might happen. What is ridiculous is that her room is literally right next door to ours, and we do have the monitors.
So why am I so afraid to let her go? I got to get over this.
I don’t think you are overreacting at all! Maybe talk to the doctor about a sleep apnea monitor in case she does have trouble breathing? Maybe that would then allow you to move her to her own room.
Mother’s intuition is a real thing. Your body wouldn’t be waking you up at every noise if you didn’t feel there was a real need for surveillance. If you move the baby, you might find yourself running in the other room every time you hear a noise on the monitor, which would be a lot more exhausting.
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I’m a little more of an attachment parent myself, so I have absolutely no problem with cosleeping, much less keeping her in your room. While my 2 year old has his own room, just about every night he ends up in my bed or I end up in his (he sleeps on a full sized futon, so I’m not like crunched up on a toddler bed). He slept in my bed until he was over 20 months.
While I have no idea what you must be experiencing in relation to your daughter’s condition, I don’t think I would rush into getting her into another room. My son never once slept in a crib and to get up and go into another room would be quite tiring for you. I wish you luck and peace in your journey.
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I don’t blame you for being paranoid or overprotective — I think there would be something wrong with a mom if she wasn’t like that in your situation! I have done a lot of research about babies & sleep and even though I don’t practice co-sleeping, I know it works really well for a lot of people and studies prove there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. In fact, there are a lot of benefits. We are given the message that children MUST sleep on their own — but this goes against many mother’s instincts and we should never ignore our feelings just because society wants us to do it differently. Every parent and every child is different — my son and I both sleep better in different rooms, but I have family & friends who sleep better, as do their babies, when they are in the same room. I say, do what works best! There is no need to be in a hurry with this. Just let it happen naturally when you are ready –I guarantee you she won’t be a teenager wanting to sleep with you, haha!
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I agree with the other posters. There is nothing wrong with Hannah sleeping in your room, as long as all 3 of you are content with the situation. I tend to be on the attachment parenting side as well. And I’m also a huge person of “go with your instincts”. Maybe Hannah needs to hear you breathing still. From an anthropological point of view, sleeping in separate rooms (for babies and small children) is a “new” thing, people couldn’t have been that wrong for that many of thousands of years of sleeping in the same room. There are still many parts of the world it is completely normal to have a child share a room. I say, let her stay (not that I really have any say in it at all).