Raising Co-Sleepers

I've been having trouble getting Ella and Sean down for naps at the same time for quite awhile now. Usually I just let Sean skip his nap and end up holding Ella while she naps in the afternoon and pray that Sean doesn't wake her within the first 20 minutes.

Yesterday, they were both really tired at the same time, so I decided to give the tandem nap a try. I took them upstairs and laid Ella in her crib with the Ocean aquarium toy on. That usually entertains her for a bit. Sean and I went in the other bedroom and I laid down with him to nurse him to sleep. He tucked his Woody doll and Elmo under the covers with him and gave them a kiss goodnight. He got super drowsy and was almost asleep when Ella decided she was done with the crib. I got up and brought her to the big bed, laying in between Sean and me. I patted Sean while nursing Ella and told him to go nite nite. Amazingly, he did and so did Ella.

I debated napping with them, but really needed to take care of some chores so I got up and went downstairs.

Less than 30 minutes later, I heard on the baby monitor that Ella woke up. I sprinted up the stairs to try to get her before she woke up Sean.

When I got there, I saw the sweetest thing. Sean had woken up and was patting Ella on her back, like we do to him, and saying "Nite nite baby. Nite Nite Ella."

I picked her up and laid with him to try to get him back to sleep while settling the baby. He just rolled over and drifted right back to sleep so I brought Ella downstairs with me.

Sean is four years old and has Down syndrome, yet just demonstrated one of the biggest benefits of co-sleeping: the ability to immediately tend to a baby's needs. That's my boy!