Jennifer

Who said parenting had to be serious all the time? It’s ok moms to just get up in the mornings and not worry about fixing your hair, doing the make-up thing or getting dressed. Just sit back and relax and goof off with your kids.

I cherish these moments as much as I cherish the serious moments of being a mom.

I love this girl…she definitely makes me smile!

And… ok we did have to be serious for a minute. This picture just shows all the love we have for each other. She definitely has me wrapped around her finger. I think this will definitely be framed in my living room!

You know, I was quite young when I had my first daughter. 21 matter of factly, and I had never heard of the terms Attachment Parenting. All I knew is everyone was offering me books to read on how I should parent. Needless to say those books never got read and sat in a stack in my bedroom corner collecting dust bunnies.

The man and I had fun decorating the nursery and putting the crib together. I just couldn’t wait to bring her home and let her enjoy the nursery that we had spent to much time in. Well… the time comes to bring my first born daughter home and you couldn’t take her from my arms. I thought now what human being would allow their baby to sleep in the dark night all alone in an room. Heck no… not me. No way and no how. Which confused me, because I had none of those feelings before bringing her home.

Needless to say, Madisyn never once saw her nursery. I am such a worry wart mom anyways, and you can believe that I would just lay awake and putting my hand on her chest to make sure she was breathing or put my hand under her nose to see if I could feel her breathing. We nursed as well so I was scared to death to nurse her and fall asleep so I made sure I was up sitting up in the bed with the boppy pillow at night nursing.

Well this went on for about 6 months and I finally brought her crib into my bedroom and took the front off and started side carring up against our bed. I learned real quick that I could just lay down and nurse her and fall back to sleep. I was finally getting into a routine, but you know what… I would pretty much end up in the side car crib with her because I couldn’t stand her not being right at my side.

We continued like this for a long time and when she was 21 months old, I had my second daughter. I thought this will be interesting. So we purchased Madisyn a princess doll house bed for her to sleep in beside us. I was all gung ho about that and yea ok… Madisyn never slept a night in that bed either when we brought new baby Lyndsee home. We just all got into bed as one happy family and Madisyn would not go to sleep at night unless she knew her little baby sister was right there in bed with her. We never had one problem and I know I got more sleep because of the co-sleeping.

Fast forward almost 6 years now and we are still a full co-sleeping family with my 5.5 year old and 3.5 year old. I just can’t even imagine them sleeping in their rooms all alone without me. All the worries go through my mind… what if Lyndsee has an asthma attack and I don’t hear her, or what if someone comes in the window or something… all the what ifs just drive me crazy and I would never get a good night’s sleep. So for now and until they are older… we will be one big happily co-sleeping family. I wouldn’t have it any other way either 🙂

We do have a particular way that we have to sleep, Lyndsee HAS to be beside me so she can have my hair as well as her lovey, and then Madisyn is beside Lyndsee. Some nights Madisyn will get beside me when Lyndsee goes to sleep first and its so funny because Lyndsee will wake up and high tail it between Madisyn and I so she can make sure Madisyn is not taking her space.

I do want to say, I am in no way saying its wrong if you do NOT cosleep with your children, but I just wanted to share our journey and what I feel is best for us!

You know as parents we are always dreaming of what we want in life with years to come… it can be for real dreams, or just caught in the moment dreams, but do we step back and realize our children are dreaming as just as much as we do.

I love to wake up and be greeted with “Mom guess what I dreamed about last night” says Madisyn. Their little imaginations are going full blast right now and I can only imagine the wheels in their heads are just a turning during the day and at night when they are sleeping.

I dream big so I am able to push myself even harder to get what I want for my family, and I believe I am instilling that into my girls. We can’t just wait around for the world to offer us something, we really have to get out there and dream big and make it happen.

So Madisyn yes we will continuing to dream big and watch our dreams come true right before our eyes. Love you my first born 🙂