My name is Meagan and I am a co-sleeper.

Today Brandon and I made a super bed. Meaning we pushed Miss E's twin bed up against our queen bed. It's pretty awesome! 

I guess that by the above statement you realize that we are a co-sleeping family. Not just co-sleeping, we take it one step further and bed share. That's right, our 2.5 year old daughter still sleeps in the same bed with us. *GASP* (enter eye roll here). 

I am SO sick of people thinking co-sleeping is unnatural or weird. Some people are very understanding, they are usually other peaceful parenting people like myself. Others just think it is so weird that we co-sleep. 

Let me start by saying that before we had a child, we said we would never bed share. That changed the day we got home from the hospital. I had a c/s that I had complications with and was breastfeeding. The thought of getting up every 1.5 to 2 hours to pick the baby up, feed her, then put the baby back down didn't sound too good to me. She did have a bassinet set up in our room. When she was hungry, Brandon would get up and bring her to me so I could feed her and then put her back down. But that got old really quick. It was SO much easier to have her beside me and when she got up, just pop a boob in her mouth til we both went back to sleep. Lazy, yes. I was a new, very sleep deprived mom. I had an incision that had complications and I was very sore. Plus I had a colicky baby that cried. A lot. She only seemed content at night when she was in bed next to me. So it worked. We all started sleeping great. She would still wake up to eat(she didn't drop her last night feeding til she was right at a year old), but she always went right back to sleep.

Now she is 2.5 and still loves to sleep with mommy and daddy. She was asking to sleep in her room on and off and we would always let her choose where she wanted to sleep. Even when she did go to sleep in her bed in her room, she would always wake up at some point and come in our bed. She has never slept an entire night in her room. We have never forced her to sleep where she doesn't want to. We have never made her "cry it out". We want her to be comfortable. If that's in our room with us, then so be it. We don't mind at all. There is going to be a day when she doesn't want to hang out with mommy and daddy so until then we are enjoying it. 

I get asked a lot why we just don't make her stay in her own bed in her room. I just simply say that is not where she wants to be. Then I get asked why don't we just let her cry. I then say that we are not believers in cry it out and we think that it is a horrible thing to do to a child who is crying. I could *never* let Miss E just cry and not respond to her cries. I wanted Miss E to know from day 1 that if she cried, mommy and daddy were going to respond and resolve whatever was wrong, even if she just wanted to be held. Then we, without fail, get asked the million dollar question. "If she is sleeping in your room/bed, then how do you and your husband have 'quality time'"? Or the "Oh, you guys must not have a very good sex life with your kid in your room all the time" To this I answer(with a smile on my face), "if you can't have a sex life without a bedroom, then you have bigger things to worry about than where my child sleeps". Because that is the truth. If you can't have sex except for on a bed in your room, then you seriously have bigger issues than how my family chooses to sleep.

I can only do what feels natural to me. Having my child close to me is what feels natural to us. To some, it only feels right having them in their own bed in their own room. To each their own. My kid is a very well adjusted, smart, independent, thriving child. So no, you don't need to worry yourself about how and where we all sleep because we are all doing just fine=)

FINALLY!

Are you ready for this??? After 4 months, we finally have a yard!! Sod was laid on Sunday and it looks amazing! I finally have the huge yard that I have wanted since we moved in. The backyard is still getting worked on, but it is close to being done as well. As I type this, the fence guy is here putting up the fence in the back. It will be awhile before the pups can have full reign of the back bc we have to wait til everything settles, but they are going to have a great place to run back there. The best part is Shyla finally gets a bigger pen, more than double the size of her's now AND she won't have to stay in it all the time, she can run around the backyard as she pleases. 


I had NO idea how much work was involved taking care of sod. Apparently we got the high dollar, best grass, very thick and durable once it takes (it's good to know people). Watering it is seriously a full time job. We have three sprinklers in the front that I have to alternate and watch the time bc it has to be wet, but it can't be too wet. Then there's the sprinkler in the back (we only laid sod where Shyla's pen is going to be and connecting it around to the front of the house on the far side) that I have to move to 3 different spots, it has to be in exactly the right spots to hit everything for a certain amount of time bc again, it has to be wet, but not too wet. Then there's the other grass that has to be hand watered. It's just really a lot of work, but in about a week or so, we are going to have a beautiful front yard! I can't wait to plant rose bushes and plan the garden out(which should be fun since I have never planted or taken care of a garden ever). So basically, we are almost done with the yard renovations and I couldn't be more happy with the out come.


Now for some updates I guess. I recently got back in contact with an old friend. We just kinda lost touch after I had Miss E (although we were friends on FB, so we both kept up with each other). She came over and we got to catch up and talk and it was like we never lost touch. We had a girls night out a few nights later, we went and ate and had margaritas (only 1 each, neither of us are drinkers anymore) and saw Magic Mike (horrible plot, great eye candy). I have really missed this girl and didn't realize it until we started talking. It's nice to have someone that understands how you think and are on the same page about so many things. I have few friends that are like that and I need to keep those close. I've had friendships fizzle out bc we just have nothing in common anymore, from religion and politics to the way we live our lives and raise our kids. I'm not saying you have to think exactly alike to be friends with someone, but there does have to be some common ground that you can base a friendship on and sometimes as we get older people change and part ways. 


I think I wrote in my last post about Miss E going to Florida. She had a blast. She was gone for 5 days and the day she was coming home, I was over at their house 2 hours early. She loved telling me all about the beach and the pool and everything she did. I'm so glad that she got to have that experience with her aunt, Grammie, and Memaw, but I think it will be a long time before she is away from me for that long again. 


I'm counting down the days til Brandon is off for vacation. We are at about a month and a half. I am so excited about our weekend anniversary trip(which we still need to book) and about our week with Miss E. I did some research and wrote out a list of things to do and how much each thing is so we are prepared. Brandon doesn't know this, but I've been putting money up every week so we can pay for that week in cash and that way I know we have the money to do everything. 


Oh and if there wasn't enough to pay for in July and Aug (my tag renewal is in Aug), I got hit with a law suit. I've been fighting this credit card company since 2009. This is the back ground on it: I got a pre approval for this card in 2008 and so I called and got the card because it was to a major store that I was wanting to buy Brandon a new TV for Christmas and I was going to use the card. Well I wound up getting him something else and just paying in cash so that I wouldn't have to worry about having another card payment. So the card was never even activated. Fast forward to a year later when I get a notice from them saying that I owed money. There was a yearly fee and interest on that, plus late charges for every month. I called them and said it had to be a mistake bc the card was never even activated much less used. They said the card went active when I called and accepted the pre approval offer. I said okay, well why wasn't I notified of any outstanding balances in that entire YEAR that had gone by? They said they have sent bills (I never got any). The amount owed was over $1000 and I told them I wasn't going to pay that. I would pay the 1 yearly fee and close the card. Well, they said no and we have been back and forth since then. Last week I got the call that they had filed a law suit against me so I did some digging and it would cost me more to pay the lawyer fees and court cost than to just settle the stupid card out. So I have to pay $826 on a card that was never even used. You better believe that store will NEVER have our business again. I paid the first half last Friday and will pay the last half the first week of August, so that puts a huge damper on things. But at least it will be done and not hanging over my head anymore. And I am also one step closer to having all of my credit cards paid off. I am now down to 1 (from 7). That is one of the lessons I'm going to teach Miss E about for sure. I wish older me could go back and tell younger me to never open those cards(or use them). But it's just another one of those life lessons learned the hard way. At least I learned it relatively young though!