Here is the clincher for me: MUMMY is HAPPIER! Why are mum and baby happier? It is due to the happy hormone oxytocin being released, the snuggle drug.
So does baby become clingy through co-sleeping? I have co-slept with each of my children.
Nayer, who is now seven, slept with me at every opportunity and is now VERY comfortable in her own bed as well as a confident happy child.
Gypsy has her own “big girl bed”, as do all the other children, but she likes to be able to sleep with me during the night sometimes. I find that this gives her comfort and a better sleep rather than trying to make her stay in her bed.
Roger, now six, was the one I slept with least. This is due to problems I was having with my eldest son at the time. I found that I tried to be a better parent by having him sleep in his own bed even though he wanted to sleep with me. He is our clingiest child and far more emotional than the rest. Rubin and Gypsy who are four and two got to co-sleep with me and are far more independent children and emotionally relaxed.
With all this in mind, I believe that co-sleeping instead of trying to detach my children has worked out better. Despite all the information that states children should sleep in their own bed, co-sleeping proves itself to be emotionally, physically and spiritually effective for both mother and child.
Today we see co-sleeping as something foreign to our nature, yet our forebears used to have children in with them from birth. These people raised strong healthy adults.
An article by Rickey Bower in The Huffington Post, states that co-sleeping isn’t a new age thing. I know that I will continue to co-sleep with my children until they are ready to move towards their own sleep patterns. There is nothing surer that our daughter will sleep more in her own bed as time slides by. As with all our other children, the day will come when they become independent sleepers, snuggles and cuddles will end.
I will continue to co-sleep and enjoy the life that I have, as our children are only children for a short time. I will love and hold them, snuggle and cuddle them until they are ready to leave the nest.
Megen Hibbins, the free-spirited hippy mother, writer, homeschooler, traveller, off grid liver, blogger and vlogger. Living totally off-grid in the Australian bush with beekeeper husband and children aged 7, 6, 5 and 2 that are homeschooled. Megen is a passionate writer, vlogger, homeschool advocate and lifestyle freedom and earth-loving activist. She writes twice a week on her blog whilst working with her husband and children on the things that need doing. To contact her head to her blog at www.yogahippy.com.au or subscribe to the Yoga Hippies YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/yogahippies.
