Hi everybody.
Melissa here from CloudMom.
And you know that at CloudMom, we love schedules, we love routines, we love everything that
can make your life as a mom easier.
Well, the number one thing that has made my life as a mom easier is "the crib".
You might think, when you bring a little tiny baby home from the hospital, that he looks
very lonely in a big old crib and actually many people invest in a bassinet for this
reason.
I actually say, "Save your money."
You can comfortably, safely, and easily put your baby in the crib from day one.
Now, many people don't do this.
Many people co-sleep and actually many moms are just too exhausted to get out of bed in
the early days.
They end up nursing their baby in their beds.
This is not something I've chosen to do for two reasons and they're personal to me.
Number one, my husband is a very late sleeper and he needs to get up and go to work the
next day, and it was pretty hard for him to be woken up during the night by me dealing
with the baby in our bed.
I also found, though, all those little adorable noises that the baby makes to be a very hard
thing for me to fall asleep with.
So, that the noise factor was one thing and also I was just worried about harming the
baby.
I was worried about rolling over.
So, I just chose from day one to put my baby in the crib.
And it actually has really worked for us.
A lot of people ask me, how have you survived having had five kids in six and a half years?
And this is what I tell them.
"I think that, they've never really had the notion of sleeping in my bed."
And I'm gonna say something that's gonna make a lot of people think I'm a really bad mother.
Ready?
I have never once had a child in my bed, ever.
I mean, they've come in my bed to read at the end of the day and that sort of thing,
but I've never had a child sleep in my bed, not even once.
And they actually, my kids, have this very secure feeling in their own beds and they
never have put into question the fact that at the end of the day, I go to my bed and
they go to their beds.
So, this has worked for me and if its something you wanna do, give it a try.
Now, how do you do this?
Okay, you're gonna be out with your baby, you're gonna be taking walks, you're gonna
wanna meet people.
Here's what I suggest.
Obviously, you can't just sit at home waiting for the time when your baby is gonna nap.
Say, "Sorry, can't have lunch.
Gotta be at home."
You do that a little bit, try to have your baby nap as much as you can, at home.
When you're at home and you see your baby starting to nod off and its time for your
baby's nap, swaddle her if your still swaddling, or otherwise just get her in the crib.
When you're out once in a while and your baby falls asleep in the stroller, fine, don't
sweat it and you might find that once your baby's asleep, if your coming home, its too
disruptive to then wake her up and transfer to the crib.
So, don't sweat those times when your baby's out and you're having fun and baby's in the
stroller.
Have fun, that's what you need to do as a new mommy, you need to get out.
But when you can, consider, as I did, putting your baby in the crib because it might really
give you a very nice break.
It might make your life as a mom much easier and down the line, it might make it much easier
for you to sleep through the night and not have a lot of the sleep training issues that
all of us have to deal with as our kids get older.