Friday, May 13, 2005

Bone of contention

When I was pregnant I set up a bassinet in our room for LB to sleep in. In the final weeks, I made it up with some lovely cotton sheets and covered it over so it wouldn't get dusty. It seemed like a perfect place for LB. I had read that having your baby sleep with you for the first six months may help prevent against SIDS (since noone really knows what causes SIDS they can't say for certain why any preventative measures work).
Jump to the first week of home and LB asleep in her bassinet at night. Well, noone prepared us for the noises babies make when they're asleep -- especially newborns. I don't think it bothered me as much as J. He's a fairly light sleeper so it was keeping him awake. After much frenzied argument, we moved LB to her room (about two metres down the hall) and kept both doors open. She's slept in there ever since.
Well, I thought this particular issue had passed for both of us until J mentioned he'd read a story about how the safest sleep place for a baby under six months is in parent's room in a cot. He said it in a really offhand way, obviously not remembering the issue it had been. This made me really mad! Clearly, I had not completely gotten over the whole moving LB to her own room thing. I guess sometimes these things simmer away . The whole separation thing had been hard for me, especially since, as I'd had a ceasarian, she had been rooming in with me for almost a week at hospital.
I don't resent J at all. It was the right decision for all of us, but it made me realise I have these things in my head that, if given the wrong environment, can become huge unseen sources of resentment. Of course, the other problem was that I was completely paranoid about SIDS. I can tell you I breathed a sigh of relief when LB reach six months (apparently, the numbers of babies dying of SIDS really drops off after six months).
Maybe a good compromise for us would be to have any future bubs in a bassinet for three months in our room? LB grew so fast, she wouldn't have fitted in her bassinet for that long! Hopefully I won't be as afraid next time, as well.

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