LeLe is 3 and a half now and Little Bug is 2 and we are still bedsharing as a family. It is still as wonderful as it always was, and now it is working even better because the kids are a little more independent so Mr. Cereal and I are able to have some adult time outside of the bedroom at night. The routine is pretty much the same, and the results seem to be working really well.

Why are we still bedsharing? For so many reasons, but part of it is because both of the kids have expressed that they enjoy it and do not want to change our situation. LeLe’s crib is at the highest setting with two mattresses and that makes it perfectly lined up with our mattress. Mr. Cereal removed one side of the crib and strapped it to our bed frame with ratchet tethers, so everything is like one continuous unit. LeLe sleeps in the crib, but can freely move over into the bed if she wants. Usually though she just sleeps on the very edge of the crib mattress close to me. I love it because I can cover her up with blankets of she gets cold, comfort her if she has a bad dream, and snuggle her to sleep at night.

For Little Bug, we still have him sleeping in between Mr. Cereal and me. We have a king sized bed, so there is plenty of room. This actually works even better for Little Bug because he is a frequent stirrer during the night and it is so much easier to pat his back and get him back to sleep when he is so close to us. Plus, Little Bug is a snuggler. He really prefers to be touching one of us for most of the night, and we both like having this contact with him.

Now that Mr. Cereal and I are both working more hours and have less time with the kids, we like that we have this guaranteed time together at night with the kids. I like being able to snuggle the kids and talk to them about their days and reconnect after being gone from them most of the day. We usually get into bed around 7:30, watch one tv show with the kids, read a book or two, and then by then Little Bug is usually out. LeLe is allowed to watch a few videos and then she usually conks out shortly after. On the nights when one of the kids is up later than normal (thank you late naps!), they get one on one time with us, which they both seem to love.

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I know a lot of people have questions about how this works for Mr. Cereal and me, and the honest answer is that we both really love the time with the kids. If we want alone time, for whatever reason, we wait until the kids are asleep and then go downstairs. Because we are more comfortable with the kids being alone in the room now that they are older and less likely to fall off the bed or get caught up in bedding, we have been going downstairs a lot more to watch our tv programs or work. It’s nice because we are still getting the time with the kids, but we are also able to have alone time too.

Bedsharing is not for every family. It has to be a mutual decision between both parents, and if not, it probably won’t work. The safety aspect of it should definitely be considered. In our case, we took some measures to ensure that the bed was safe when the kids were much smaller. Now that they are both older, the safety aspect is much less serious as the kids have blankets and pillows and are often snuggled up under our comforters during the night. But again, the safety aspect should be considered prior to making the decision to bedshare.

Eventually we will move the kids out of the bed and into their own, maybe still in our room for a while. It really depends on the kids and what they want to do. I suspect that once one decides to be out of the bed and in their own, the other will want the same thing, so I figure it will be a all or none situation. Ideally, they will want to continue for a while longer as we are all enjoying it for now.