Tidbits

Here's an update on Tallu, something I haven't done for a while.

Milady is five months old, with lots of curly hair, big cheeks, and turkey legs. The cough is finally gone, though every once in a while she needs to clear her throat. She doesn't really enjoy being on her stomach for very long, and would much rather move around on her back. Tallu loves her rainforest gym and uses her hands and feet to play with her toys. She's found her hands, and mine, which have become her chew toys while she's teething.

I know the proper term is teething toys, but for some reason I keep calling them chew toys...

Anyhoo- she's not exactly sleeping through the night. She sleeps in five hour stretches. Now that I am not leaving the house for work, I don't mind getting up in the middle of the night. The last early morning feeding I bring her in the bed with us, because she can nurse in her sleep, and I can nurse her while I sleep.

There is a radio campaign in my city urging parents not to co-sleep with your baby. You could roll over on the baby in your sleep, crush her, suffocate her. She's safer in her own crib. Could these things happen? When I was fourteen my sister and I slept over at my aunt's house to hang out with my cousin. My aunt was babysitting an infant, and when it came time for bed she asked who wanted to sleep with him. I volunteered, and it meant the baby and I would have to sleep together on the sofabed. (There were also kittens in the living room, somehow they ended up in the bed with us.) I remember waking up twice. The first time the baby was crying. The second time I smelled something awful. I thought he pooped, but it was one of the kittens. However, I did not roll over on the baby, and I was not his mother.

If you have a large enough bed and you want your infant to sleep with you, I say why not? (I wouldn't recommend it if you've had a little too much to drink, or if you're on heavy medication.) I get more sleep after the 3 AM feeding because I don't have to wake up at 5 or 6 to feed her again. My husband gets more sleep because he doesn't have to hear a crying baby. Tallu gets more sleep because she can just wiggle over to me and nurse. Everybody's happy.